The Finales Overture
by FreeWrite
Summary: They find an Earth but not the one they were looking for and not the way they were expecting it. Crossover with Stargate:SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** The Finales Overture

**Author:** FreeWrite

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Battlestar Galactica nor Stargate: SG1. I'm playing with them for a little while for pleasure and not for profit, I will return them in good condition when I am done.

**Spoilers:** Up to 'Unfinished Business' in BSG and around mid season 7ish for SG1 (before Death Knell).

**Authors Notes:** I am a crossover junkie and when I got the idea to cross my latest love with one of my long time loves I couldn't help myself. Cannon pairings for both but no specific ship focussed on. Also this was supposed to be short and simple, and it's not, gah. Also I didn't write this in order which got really confusing on occasion but once I worked out how it was going to begin and end it made the middle a lot easier to write. Updating should be fairly regular as this story is 80 finished, if things continue to go as they have been there should be a new chapter up once a week. Also at the moment I don't have a beta so if anyone is willing please let me know it would be greatly appreciated.

It was getting harder and harder to look forward to anything further away than the morning.

For the three years since New Caprica had been abandoned they had wandered, looking for those elusive co-ordinates that would lead them to earth.

Some had given up hope of ever finding a new place to call home, Laura Roslin hadn't and she never would, she knew deep inside of her that they would find earth. She also knew that she would never see it. It was an accepted fact, her body was still turning against her, they had been fighting the cancer and for a time it seemed that she was winning the fight, but she knew it wouldn't last long.

Her life expectancy had once again been reduced to weeks, there would be no miracle cure this time, and there was no time to be bought. She didn't want it, she had been given more time than she ever imagined, more time than billions had been granted.

She knew that she was lucky to be surrounded by friends and loved ones in her last weeks. Filling her time with love and laughter, the best memories her chosen family could give her. She couldn't ask for anything more.

She listened as the FTL jump Klaxon's rang through Galactica, the CAP would be landing and soon a voice would ring over the speakers with the countdown until the jump. She missed Colonial One but its engines had finally given out several months before. Chief Tyrol had done everything he could, but in the end they had been forced to strip the ship and re-allocate all the survivors to other ships. Due to the space required she and her personnel had moved over to Galactica. Not that she minded being there most days. It was nice to be able to sit down with Bill whenever she needed to without having to call a shuttle over.

It was nice to be near her best friend, her new family. A day didn't go by when she wasn't visited by one of her 'children', it always amused Laura that despite choosing never to have children of her own she had gained a larger family than she had ever had on Caprica. It started with Billy and Lee, those first few hours after the attacks had cemented her relationship with Billy and started one with Lee. It took a few weeks to work out that Lee was actually a package deal and with him came Kara Thrace. A very reticent Kara to be certain, the younger woman had been distrustful of her at first but as time went on a grudging respect had emerged only to be torn down again when Laura got near to the end the first time. It would be more than a year before Laura found out why.

A cold damp night on New Caprica with an angry Kara, a lonely Laura, too much alcohol and some of those New Caprican cigarettes Laura made, had both women saying things they normally guarded so closely no-one left alive actually knew these particular secrets. The next morning and the worst hangover she'd had since the groundbreaking ceremony (admittedly only a month before, but the previous one had been several years ago) Kara had jokingly called her Mama Laura. A title Laura had never expected to be bestowed with had nearly bought tears to her eyes; it was times like this she regretted never having children of her own. A title that was only ever used in private and a title that was never explained to anyone not even Bill and Lee Adama, no matter how often the two of them asked.

Despite the hell they had gone through on New Caprica, she missed the solid ground, the smell of the earth and feel of leaves crunching beneath her feet, she held onto those memories for as long as she could. Laura feared that it was a joy she would never experience again.

New Caprica had brought new relationships as well, despite the volatile relationship she had always had (and probably always would have) with Saul Tigh she trusted him with her life, he was a good man and working with the resistance had created a bond between them that Bill had found tough to understand. In fact the bond between all of those she had worked with during the resistance was still just a strong as ever, even to the point where Nicky Tyrol had asked if she would be his Grandma. Laura had never seen the Chief so flustered but looking down at the innocent face of his then two and a half year old son she had been unable to refuse and pulled the boy into her lap and said "I'll be whoever you want me to be Nicky, as long as your parents say that it's okay". The Chief had continued to sputter un-intelligibly while his wife looked at Laura and mouthed a teary thankyou. Somehow after that the most of the crews children refused to call her anything but Grandma much to their parent's chagrin and Kara's amusement.

These last two weeks had been hard, she had spent most of it just sitting at her desk, and people came to her. Bill, Tori and Tom all understood they were lucky she had made it this far and did what they could to make things easier, but she could feel it in her bones that it wouldn't be long until Doc Cottle confined her to life station. As it was she was falling asleep at her desk more and more often. Getting through an entire day without a nap had been proving an impossible task recently, most of the time she couldn't be bothered going back to her quarters so she just ended up dosing wherever she was.

A quiet knock at the hatch interrupted her light snooze and mental meanderings, not bothering to open her eye's Laura called for them to enter. It was only Bill, Tori and Tom that came directly to her office without announcement these days and considering she had fallen asleep in meetings with all three over that last week or so Laura wasn't fussed about being seen napping.

"Madam President?" Admiral William Adama's deep voice rumbled through the room she had taken over as her office when Colonial One had finally given out and forced her to move to Galactica. "I can come back later"

"No it's alright Bill, just resting my eyes"

He nodded and moved further into the room to sit opposite her, his blue eye's watching her as she struggled to sit up properly, bypassing the chair he walked around to her side and gently grasped her elbow and helped her into a comfortable position. Knowing she wouldn't want to speak about it, in silence he went back and took his seat at the proper place.

"Our scouts have reported finding a planet that supports human life. Scans indicate it's much like Old Caprica; I was thinking that we stop and recuperate for a while. Not permanent settlement, but have a rest." He took a deep breath, unsure of how hard he was going to work to sell her on this. "We have children that have never been in the Sun and that's just not right. I'm sending a team to scout the surface but from all indications there is an area north of the equator that is temperate and has fresh water and plenty of wildlife we can hunt, which means fresh meat for a while. I don't know about you but I could really do with a real steak right about now."

Laura regarded him with a ghost of a smile on her face; he could tell that she was contemplating the pros and cons of his news.

"That's the best news I've heard in a very long time." His face broke into a grin at the return of the sparkle in her eyes.

Eyes that had been dull and lacking in life more recently. Bill could see every time he visited her that she was fading just that little bit more. Her smiles were more pained, hands that used to be steady and strong could barely clutch a pen, the voice that had been resonating through the fleet these last few years a voice of hope and guidance, and occasionally the one to say what no-one was willing to hear, had weakened to the point where he was straining to hear her most days.

He had been prepared to loose her years before, when their friendship was still in the fledgling stage. Since then it had deepened more than he would like to think about, he imagined losing her now would be like loosing a limb.

While it had never proceeded beyond a platonic relationship there was an intimacy there he had never felt with his wife, never felt with anyone else in fact. He supposed it was a relationship built on necessity, but it was a friendship built on trust.

"I want to see all the information on this planet before we announce anything, and I want it kept as quiet as possible until then. Make sure you brief Tom as well, we'll sit down and go over everything before a final decision is made."

"I agree…"

Before he could continue, Tory strode through the door her attention focussed on the clipboard in her hands, not noticing that Laura had company.

"Madam President, I am happy to inform you that your day is officially over." The younger woman made her way through the office to pick up and drop off various things, seemingly ignoring the other two in the room. When she finally looked up she wasn't surprised to see the Admiral sitting there, it was nothing new. Tory was well aware that the Admiral kept track of the Presidents schedule and would drop by to check on her when he could.

In fact Tory was no longer surprised by anything where those two were concerned. Several times in the past, she had arrived early in the morning on Colonial One and found the two of them on chairs in the main section Presidents office asleep. Gaeta had lamented over the number of times he had found the two of them on the Admiral's couch. It was always the same, President Roslin curled up, legs tucked underneath her and Admiral Adama stretched out with his legs crossed resting on whatever was available.

Despite the fact that the President and the Admiral argued like an old married couple, Tory and Gaeta knew that nothing else had ever happened, but just in case made sure that the overnight visits were kept as quiet as possible.

Ever the gentleman Bill made his way to the Presidents side and offered his arm; smiling gratefully Laura clasped it and accepted his assistance to rise.

"Thankyou Tory, I'll see you in the morning."

With one arm wrapped around her waist and the other clutching her hand tightly he quietly guided her out the side door where her quarters were located. Just as the hatch was closing she could hear him ask.

"Starbuck want's to know when Mama Laura will have time for a visit?"

Tory shook her head. She still had no idea how that nickname had come about.

It was a week later that they finally got down to the surface. Since it had been a good six months since any contact with the Cylons it was decided that they would set down for a month. Allowing people the chance to breathe fresh air and be free before continuing their search for earth.

Despite her arguments Laura had been overruled in her requests to go down to the planet until after Doc Cottle made sure that it wouldn't adversely affect her health. Her argument that no matter what she did, it would affect her health so they may as well let her go down fell on deaf ears.

On the second day of landing people on the planet Laura was finally cleared to go down to the planet in a Raptor, in the back with her was a marine guard, Doc Cottle and Bill. A second Raptor with 3 more marines, Tory and Starbuck landed seconds before them.

For the first time in nearly three years Laura Roslin felt the sun on her face.

Knowing that Doc Cottle wouldn't tolerate her being down here to long and started insisting she go back up to Galactica Laura nodded to Tori who quickly grabbed the large bag she had lugged down from Galactica and started to pull item's out. The first being a blanket which she spread out on a dry patch of grass, smiling from where Bill and Starbuck were practically holding her upright Laura moved toward the blanket and allowed them to help her sit down on it.

Without bothering to ask Starbuck immediately sat down next to her and allowed the President to lean up against her while Doc Cottle got something for Laura to lean against set up.

Several hours and lunch later, all around her saw that Laura was fading fast and they were starting to make preparations to go back up to Galactica when a panic rippled through the thousands of people on the ground.

The screams started and one word was heard above all else.

"SKIN JOBS!"

Immediately all those around Laura sprang into action. The Marines had them boxed in every angle covered, guns pointed outwards, while Tori and Doc Cottle gathered up all the essential supplies and threw them into the Raptors. Having not moved from her spot next to Laura, Starbuck had wrapped an arm around the President and rolled her to the ground so that Kara was kneeling over the Presidents legs gun in hand, eyes darting back and forth trying to asses the threat. Bill was on the other side of Laura protecting her head. From her position she couldn't quite see what was happened so she attempted to shuffle round and raise her head to get an idea of what was going on, she was well aware that as soon as they could they would throw her into the nearest Raptor and to be taken back to the Galactica.

All around them the Military members were ushering the civilians back towards the ships, creating a line of defence without any orders having to be given, they all knew what needed to be done.

Get the civilians to safety, take out as many toasters as you can and get the Frak out of there.

All of a sudden at the far end of the field three men and a woman stepped out of the dense brush, obviously curious as to what all the commotion was all about. The second they were in sight every Colonial gun was pointed at them. Instantly two of the men and the women dropped into a defensive stance, covering each other's backs with their weapons raised.

The third man jumped in between the two groups his arms raised shouting.

"We mean you no harm"

Racetrack who was one of the closest officers to them immediately spat back "Bull shit, you frakking toasters will mow down every one of us given half a chance".

Jack O'Neill was not a happy camper.

The day had started off so well. A simple four day bag and tag with a little bit of recon to see if there was anything stopping them from using this as a back up Delta sight, mission, the UAV had reported no signs of civilisation past or present but sometime since they arrived on the planet yesterday a hell of a lot of people had appeared. They had seen the ships descending towards the ground and curiosity had got the better of them, well not that Teal'c would ever admit to being curious but Jack knew he was.

He first realised that things weren't going to go quite to plan when a scream tore through air; his next indication was when he stepped out of the denser forest to find a whole lot of guns pointed at them.

One of the first things he noticed was that these people were Military. They held their weapons with confidence, they knew how to use them and weren't afraid to do whatever was necessary to survive. That worried him, people like that were dangerous unless you could find a middle ground.

Scanning the crowd of people while Daniel jumped in the middle of them and started talking, Jack noticed several ships throughout the field with people piling into them, he didn't even want to hazard a guess on how many ships or people there were.

"Sir?" Sam was waiting for orders.

Half listening to Daniel argue with the angry woman pointing a gun at them over whether they were evil kitchen appliances or not one particular group caught his attention. 100 yards or so from where he stood there were three people huddled on the ground. One, a woman if he wasn't mistaken, was being protected by the other two and there were four big men with big guns surrounding them, Security Detail?

"Hold, we wait and see" He finally replied to the Major.

Whoever the woman was, she was important and that made her the person Jack wanted to deal with.

The older man kneeling over her keeping her head protected looked towards Jack and made eye contact and held it for several moments, Jack knew they were out numbered and out gunned and whatever it was, these people had a very serious motivation for shooting first and asking questions later.

Daniel was still trying to convince the people right in front of him that they weren't toasters and they certainly weren't evil when the older man nodded once – interpreting Jack's questioning look to mean 'I drop my gun and you don't shoot me', releasing his gun Jack let it dangle off his jacket, and he could hear when Carter and Teal'c followed suit disengaging his staff weapon and laying it on the ground.

Bill watched as the four people stood there holding their weapons up in self-defence, there was something in their stance, the genuine confusion in their faces when Racetrack called them toasters that gave him pause.

Even if a person didn't know they were a Cylon, they should have known what a Cylon was. Then there was the uniform, they weren't anything he had ever seen in the Colonies before and he knew that the Cylon's didn't wear uniforms.

If this was a trick it was a very good one.

He saw one of their gazes fall on them, watched as the man took in the security surrounding Laura and how protected she was, Bill knew the moment the man deduced that there was someone very important over here and the he wanted to talk to them and no-one else. It unsettled him how quickly this man sized up them and the situation.

He caught the man's gaze, seeing the understanding of the situation as a whole and a question i 'If I surrender promise you won't kill us straight away?' /i Bill nodded once in agreement. It was obvious then that he was the leader, when he let go of his weapon the other two immediately followed suit, dropping their weapons and holding their hands up in surrender, it took a few moments for the fourth to catch on as he was still quite enamoured with trying to explain something to Racetrack.

"Get her back up to Galactica and then bring Athena down, I'm going to have a chat to our guests." He muttered to Starbuck.

"I can hear you" an irritated Laura Roslin growled from beneath them "and I'm not going anywhere"

Before Bill could try and reason with her Starbuck jumped in "With all due respect Madam President, you can barely walk, what makes you think I won't just carry you back to the Raptor."

Laura gaped up at the two of them but realised that Starbuck was very serious and if she didn't co-operate she would find herself in the undignified position of being slung over the pilots shoulder.

Nodding her acquiescence, Laura quickly found herself pulled off the ground by the two of them, Bill beckoned Tori over who immediately wrapped and arm around her waist. When the world began to spin in front of her and she felt her legs start to give out, but Kara and Tory had such a solid grip on her Laura didn't think her feet actually touched the ground on the way to the Raptor.

Blinking rapidly Laura resisted the urge to try and shake the fuzziness out of her head; past experience told her that it was a bad idea so she merely tried to breathe through the dizziness.

As Doc Cottle and one of the Marine's 'helped' her up into the Raptor she turned back towards Bill.

"And Admiral" Starbuck echoed the call, making sure his attention was on them "Don't throw them out an airlock until after I've spoken to them myself."

He chuckled; they both knew it was a distinct possibility that once again Galactica's airlock would be used in this fashion.

He waited until the Presidents Raptor was sealed shut and had taken off before turning back to the now un-armed strangers. Kat, Anders and Hotdog stood facing the foursome holding their rifle's on them while the Chief was securing their hands behind their backs with Racetrack's help. It didn't surprise Bill that his people had forced this strange group to face away from their people and ships still getting up into the air, in fact he was downright pleased that they had done it.

He watched for a few moments just out of their line of sight, wanting to see how they reacted. He found it odd that they weren't struggling against the bonds, begging to be told what was going on or trying to talk their way out, well the younger of the men was still trying to convince Racetrack that he wasn't a toaster that he was in fact human, but it wasn't the speech of a desperate man. In fact Bill would almost say that this was routine for the man, he was speaking from experience, and the fire in his eyes said that he had been here before had survived and knew what he was doing. Without giving a lot away from their facial expressions Bill could see that each of them was aware of their surroundings. They were each plotting a way to get out of this, and he would hazard a guess that once they were alone and had a chance to talk, they would have each noticed different strengths and weaknesses about the people who had captured them.

From first glance they didn't look like a standard Military team, in fact he would say that the man wearing glasses wasn't even military, but years of being in the Colonial Fleet and especially since the destruction of the Colonies he had come to be highly appreciative of the unique views and talents of different people. Especially when it came to dealing with situations that were not the norm. Bill had no doubt that each of these four people was highly intelligent, talented and motivated.

Closing the final ten meters to them he almost laughed out loud to hear the oldest man demanding of Chief Tyrol.

"Take me to your leader"

Jack's day was not getting any better.

This was supposed to be an easy mission and this planet was supposed to be person free, but once again he's without his gun and handcuffed.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Carters arms moving slightly, some days his team was wildly predictable. Daniel was still trying to talk them out of this, Carter was trying to pick the locks on her handcuffs and Teal'c would be assessing the danger ready to act on a moments notice.

After dropping his weapon Jack had time to watch the Woman be practically carried back to one of the spaceships before he was turned around forced onto his knees and handcuffed. None of the other ships had taken off until after her's, she was definitely someone important.

As his team was already doing what he expected of them Jack decided it was time for him to indulge in his life long love of being a smart arse.

"Take me to your leader"

Schooling his face into the blank military mask he had perfected over the last 45 odd years Bill stepped into their line of sight.

"You're in no position to demand anything"

"Ok then," Jack made a show of thinking hard "Take me to your… Queen?"

Bill blinked in surprise. He could see Racetrack mouthing the word Queen in confusion. Luckily she was smart enough not to voice her confusion, but that didn't stop the younger looking of the three men from voicing his own opinion.

"Queen? Jack? Really I would think you would know by now not to assume that everyone has similar power structures as we do, just because she was more protected than everyone else put together it doesn't make her a Queen or President or something similar that we would find on Earth. Your really need to work on not trying to categorise everything into our neat little earthling boxes."

Bill felt the blood drain from his face as he processed the words he was hearing.

"Fine" Jack grumbled "Take me to your Grand Pumbah." He turned to Daniel "Is that better?"

'_Earth… and what the frak was a Grand Pumbah.'_ managed to make its way through Bill's head, luckily he refrained from voicing that particular thought as the younger man groaned.

"Yes Jack, much better" the sarcasm was palpable.

They were from Earth, Bill's first instinct was to believe them, but common sense told him that it could very well be an elaborate Cylon hoax, it wouldn't be the first one, but his gut said they couldn't be lying. The words were used so casually, as a rebuke not to make a point about where they were from. Looking around he knew he wasn't hearing things, the others gathered around him all had similar stunned looks on their faces.

Grabbing Tyrol by the arm Bill dragged him out of hearing range.

"Call Starbuck. Tell her get back down here with both the President and Athena as soon as frakking possible. Don't let her question the order, try not to let Cottle override it either" Galen nodded dumbly still trying to comprehend what he'd heard. "Hurry up, go now and don't tell them what the man said just make sure they come back down and then go and find the Vice President. He needs to be here as well."

He gave Galen a quick shove to startle the younger man into action. It worked because Galen took off at a sprint to the nearest Raptor to convey The Admiral's message. Stalking back over to the group he looked over the four of them one more time before ordering the restraints to be removed.

Everyone, including the team that had been captured was surprised by the order, Racetrack was the first to comply, walking over to Carter to undo her cuffs only to find that one of them had already been picked and the blond woman was already unrestrained but hadn't made any move to free her companions as of yet. Filing that bit of information away she quickly undid the other cuff without alerting the Admiral, Racetrack didn't think that it was important right now. If it became and necessary to restrain them again she would say something but for now she wanted to give the supposed Earth people the benefit of the doubt.

Once all of the restraints had been removed The Admiral looked them over once more, knowing he could be wrong to allow them to be unrestrained but his gut was telling him that these people were not a threat to them.

"I'm Admiral William Adama of the Colonial Fleet. You speak with me or you speak with no one."

Jack knew that tone of voice, he'd had that tone directed at him many times before, and it was of someone who was used to being in command and being obeyed.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force, Major Sam Carter, Dr Daniel Jackson and Teal'c" Jack indicated each team member as he introduced them.

"He" The Admiral pointed at Daniel "said you were from earth?"

"Earth is our planet, the United States is the Country where we, well not Teal'c, were born" Sam spoke up. "It's just one of many countries, what's so important about Earth?"

"How did you get here, there is no civilisation on this planet we scanned the whole thing before allowing our people to land, and we would've seen your ship." None of SG1 were surprised that he didn't answer Sam's question about their interest in Earth.

Daniel glanced at Jack out of the corner of his eye, when the older man shrugged in resignation Daniel spoke up.

"We came through the Chappa'i." He was met with blank stares from the Colonials "The Stargate" he tried again still no recognition "Doorway of the Gods"

"Stairway to heaven" Jack tried to help but to no avail, he looked over at Carter giving her permission to explain.

"The Stargate is a piece of technology that creates a stable wormhole allowing instantaneous travel over vast distances between two gates. Each gate has an address correlating to the placement of the planetary body it's on, so as long as you have the right address you can go anywhere there is an active gate. We're members of a Military run program called Stargate Command, our team designation is SG1." Sam knew she could have gone more in depth but then the Colonel would get bored.

The Admiral opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by Chief Tyrol running up to them.

"Incoming, two base stars just appeared on DRADIS, they've launched Raiders. The fleet's started to jump away to the emergency co-ordinates and alert fighters have been launched."

"Let's go people" Bill hollered without hesitation and started to head towards the Raptor's still parked on the ground around them, turning back to SG1 he motioned them to follow.

"You too, we were looking for Earth in the first place so we can get you home if you have the co-ordinates."

Taking their weapons back SG1 broke into a run following the Admiral towards the Raptors just as four Raiders flew overhead. When the Colonial's didn't stop to fire at them, neither did SG1 until the second pass. As he saw them circling back around Teal'c noticed someone off in the distance launching what he assumed was a small rocket at the Raiders. Stopping for a moment he took careful aim at one of the Raiders visors and fired three rapid shot with his staff weapon. The plasma bolts flew up towards the Raider, the first and third skimming the edges but the middle one found its target. It's brain fried by the staff Weapon shot, the Raider dropped and exploded on impact a few kilometres away.

"Nice" Anders muttered under his breath as he saw the explosion.

The group finally reached the Raptors, and clambered onto whichever one had space available.

The last of the Fleet made their FTL jumps and winked out of sight The Admiral breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Vipers make their landings on Galactica and the landing bays retract.

"Hold on tight" he advised Jack and Sam who had ended up in the same Raptor.

"Jump in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…"

In that moment Jack would swear his insides had been compressed ripped out his navel, re-arranged and shoved down his throat.

"What the hell was that?" He finally ground out holding his stomach trying not to revisit this mornings breakfast. Glancing over at Carter, the woman was an adrenaline junkie with caste iron stomach after seven years of gate roulette and looked like she was about to throw up, this confirmed his thoughts that what just happened was not natural.

"FTL jump. We can safely jump up to 33 light years." Their Pilot, Hotdog, tried not to laugh at their faces, in the back with them Anders didn't bother to even hide his snigger at their discomfort.

Finally managing to regain his equilibrium Jack looked out the front view port just in time to see Galactica come into view.

"Wouldya look at that" He nudged Carter who leaned forward speechless.

The two of them watched in wonder looking at the various ships surrounding them, not really paying attention to the chatter going on in the cockpit.

"Did you say 33 light years per jump?" Carter asked after a few moments of silence.

"That's where the Red line is. Once you go further than that too much navigational error occurs and you can end up landing anywhere with no idea where you are." Admiral Adama explained.

Sam stopped for a moment, blue eyes moving back and forth as she went over the calculations in her head.

"Sir that puts us approximately 1256 jumps from Earth." Her eyebrows knitted together as she continued to think.

"Carter…?"

"I know, I know, you didn't want to hear that, I'll need to have a look at this FTL and its calculations, but we're either in for a very long trip home or we'll have to find a closer planet with a gate and work out something from there."

"Carter…?"

"We're on the opposite side of the Galaxy, I can't change the laws of physics just because you forgot to tape the Simpson's again Sir. I told you I could program it to record automatically but you turned me down, said you could do it just fine for yourself"

Jack clapped his hands over his eyes and rubbed his face in irritation.

"It's not all about the Simpson's Carter."

Running through the known and friendly gate address in her mind Sam continued to calculate distances and jumps in her head.

"Yes Sir, Your right Sir there is more to life than the Simpson's, and yes I am taping the Black hawks game."

Looking over his shoulder Bill shared a confused glance with Anders, who was just as lost by the conversation held by these supposed Earth people. He thought perhaps these Simpson's were greatly revered spiritual leaders by the Colonel, that could explain his upset at missing him, and the Black hawks must be very important to their culture for the two of them to be speaking about them at a time like this.

The conversation dropped off as the Raptor entered Galactica's landing bay, and was brought down into the main hanger.

Jack's respect for these people went up a notch, despite that fact that they had just desperately fled from P9C-227 all around him the people were getting back to business as usual. He watched as the man who had warned them of the attack jumped out one of the other Raptors already shouting orders, and checking over the ships for any damage. Pilots were speaking to mechanics advising of any problems or glitches they'd come across in the most recent flights and people who weren't in either of those two groups were very quickly getting out of the way. Among them Daniel and Teal'c exited the Raptor they had clambered aboard and made their way over to the wall Sam and Jack were currently occupying, a Marine guard nearby trying to be subtle about watching these strangers but not really succeeding.

"That was different" Daniel murmured to his teammates. "So how long until they throw us in the brig?"

"I think we lucked out on this one, Daniel" Sam replied, eyeing one of the Vipers, comparing what she saw with their fighters back home "The moment you said we were from Earth… Did you see the look on the Admiral's face?"

Eyeing the slightly organised chaos around them Jack thought back on what had happened. "It's their Holy Grail," the blond woman who had left the planet with who Jack assumed was their leader, strode up to the Admiral and whispered something in his ear, Jack could see the palpable relief in the Admiral's entire body, whatever he'd been told was good news "These people are tired, hungry and lost. I don't know how they found out about Earth, I just hope that they're not our enemies."

The blond woman turned towards them as Admiral Adama spoke to her, both with serious looks on their faces. She nodded as they started walking towards him but were stopped when another woman interrupted them, whatever The Admiral and the blond were told they weren't happy, Jack couldn't quite make out what was being said but it seemed they were fighting over something.

"But the President wants to meet them now" Tory hissed as loudly as she dared while trying not to sound like a reticent child.

Bill managed to refrain from rolling his eyes, he hadn't expected this so soon, he figured Laura would end up falling asleep before he even got back to the ship, giving him a chance to speak to the strangers and find out how dangerous these people were to them. He was not letting them near the President just yet.

"This is a Military matter, I'll brief the President once we know more about them and then we might arrange for her to meet them, and how did she find out about this already?"

They'd already been over this twice, Tory had known all along what the answer would be and was tempted to not even ask, but Laura Roslin was a teacher in every sense of the word. She always KNEW when things had or hadn't been done and when someone was lying to her. Tory didn't know whether it was and innate sixth sense the President had been born with or if it was something all teachers knew.

"I'll let her know" Tory sighed "but she's not going to be happy".

"This isn't about her happiness Tory, it's about the safety of the Fleet."

With a smirk, Tory turned to walk away but threw her parting shot over her shoulder "In case you haven't noticed the two go hand in hand."

"She's got a point," Starbuck muttered.

"Yeah" The Admiral agreed "but we won't tell them that."

The two of them stood there for a moment in silence, basking in madness that was the Hanger Deck before turning back to their new arrivals.

"Remember Starbuck, you're just talking. Get their story and give them the basics on how we ended up here, no details that would compromise security and no punching any of them either."

Kara looked up at him, attempting to give him an innocent look "Would I do that?"

The Admiral had known her to long to buy into it "Yes," his gruff reply was belied by the grin lurking "everyone knows you solve your problems with your fists or your gun, in fact a lot of bets have been lost on the fact you haven't shot Anders yet."

They dropped back into silence as they covered the last 10 meters to where SG1 was waiting.

"Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Dr Jackson and Teal'c, this is Captain Thrace, I've asked her to explain what happened down on the planet today. She's going to take you to one of our ward rooms; it's a lot more comfortable than here in Oil-Slick city."

"Thank you" Jack grinned at the Admiral "but I'd still rather speak with your leader."

"Jack, please don't get us thrown into a jail cell." Daniel muttered under his breath.

"That's impossible at the moment; both the President and I have issues regarding this afternoon's incident to attend to. Captain Thrace will be able to assist you with anything you need that doesn't compromise our security" Bill held Jack's gaze unwavering, waiting for his acceptance. At Jack's nod of consent Bill continued "Hopefully I won't be to long, but you may not be able to meet with the President until morning now. If you'd leave your weapons here I'll make sure that they are stored in a safe place and go with the Captain"

With the knowledge that they were outnumbered and out gunned the team disarmed themselves, well mostly, Carter conveniently 'forgot' about the knife tucked into her boot.

"Follow me" Kara turned and snapped off a sloppy salute to the Admiral before sauntering through the hanger bay with SG1 trailing behind her.

"So what do you think?" Tyrol asked Anders as they watched Kara leave from the other side of the hanger bay.

"If the conversation I heard in the Raptor is anything to go by I don't know who to feel sorrier for Kara or them." Anders was grinning appreciatively at the view of his wife walking away from him "The woman is wicked smart, I mean she worked out how many jumps it would take us to get to Earth like that" he snapped his fingers.

"Beauty and Brains" Galen smirked at Anders, they were both well aware what a dangerous combination that was. "Hey, do you think we could get her and Captain Thrace into the boxing ring one night?"

Very few things about their President surprised Kara these days. The fact that she was waiting for them in the ward room was not one of them, rolling her eyes she grabbed Tory and hauled her out the door slamming it closed leaving the President inside.

"What happened to Military issue, she can talk to them later, after we've worked out if they're dangerous or not." Kara hissed. "And does Cottle know she's here?"

"I couldn't stop her" Tory rolled her eyes in frustration "You know how she gets when she puts her mind to something, as for Cottle well…"

Tory trailed off as Jack Cottle came storming down the corridor.

"He does now!"

The two of the stepped aside allowing the Doctor entrance to the wardroom, they remained there as the hatch slammed shut behind Cottle, not wanting to get caught in between the irate Doctor and the stubborn President.

Even though it was closed and sealed all out in the hall could still hear the Doctor.

"I said rest, not go traipsing all over the ship…"

Meanwhile SG1 were standing there listening to everything that was being said, trying to work out what was going on and how crazy these people really were.

"Problem?" Jack finally broke the silence.

"More like a minor miscommunication, it shouldn't take long to clear up." Kara chewed on her bottom lip hoping that Cottle would convince the President that she should be resting but knowing he wouldn't. Laura Roslin lived by the creed, 'I'll sleep when I'm dead', and it seemed the sicker she got the harder she pushed herself.

It wasn't long before the hatch slammed open again and Jack Cottle strode out defeated, lighting a cigarette.

"How you deal with that all day I have no idea" he groaned at Tory "Don't come crying to me when she passes out from exhaustion."

With a huff he turned and strode back down the hall to Life Station the cigarette smoke floating behind him like a beacon.

"Change of plans" Kara looked at SG1 and wry grin gracing her features "apparently President Roslin is able to meet with you after all."

Reaching behind her she opened the hatch and ushered the team inside quickly followed by Tory and the two Marines that had been assigned to them.

Jack wasn't exactly sure what to expect when they finally got into the wardroom, he had his suspicions about these people and their leaders. From what he'd seen of the people he guessed that they were refugees of some kind, but from his experience refugees didn't have Admirals and Presidents, unless it was a civil war. He didn't like getting involved in civil wars, it was messy and painful and always seemed to end up with one of his team being kidnapped or dying.

Sitting in one of the seats was a woman, he guessed in her mid fifties, pale and thin and very beautiful in a fragile way, but at the moment she was very ill. Jack could see a light sheen of sweat on her forehead, her hands were shaking but her eyes were clear. Her body was wasting away but there was steel beneath the surface, the way she appraised them told him that her mind was still sharp, and he wouldn't be able to get away with any of the bullshit he normally pulled.

In fact she reminded him a bit of his seventh grade English teacher.

For the first time Laura got a really good look at the strangers claiming to be from Earth and while she wasn't going to dispute their claims out right she didn't want to trust them straight away either. She watched them as they looked around the room taking in their surroundings Laura had no doubt about the things that were being noticed.

They took in the entrances and exits, the number of guards, both the marines guarding them and her own security, and weapons in the room; they had already sized up Tory and Kara, and would now be doing the same to her.

This was apparently good strategy when in enemy territory.

Not bothering to rise, Laura knew she's just end up in a crumpled heap on the floor, she held her hand out to them in greeting curious to see if they would take it or not.

"Laura Roslin, President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol" Tory made sure to emphasise President "I'd like to introduce you to our visitors from Earth," Tory turned to them just realising that she'd never gotten their names.

Putting on his most charming grin Jack strode up to Laura and grasped her hand gently; out of the corner of his eye he saw every single one of the guards grasp their weapons.

"Jack O'Neill pleased to meet you." He re-introduced his team quickly before sitting in the chairs that had been set out for his team a few meters from where President Roslin sat.

"The pleasure is all ours apparently"

"Sir, The Admiral has asked me to give them a basic briefing on this afternoon and our situation or would you rather…"

Sam wasn't sure what to think about a woman being addressed as 'Sir'. She'd have to ask someone about it later.

"No no no" Laura smiled "go ahead Starbuck"

'Starbuck?' Jack mouthed at Daniel, only getting a shrug in reply.

Not bothering to sit Kara took a deep breath and started to tell their story.

"Many years ago, we were at war with a race called the Cylons. It was long and bloody and ended with an armistice, 40 years to the day later they attacked us and wiped out our population. 40 billion people died that day, of our 12 colonies only some 50 thousand survived. That was just under 5 years ago, since then we have been running, trying to survive, the Cylons are relentless and have been chasing us ever since trying to wipe out the rest of humanity. There are myths about a 13th colony on a distant planet called Earth. We've been trying to find it, hoping that we can start again and re-build, hoping if we get far enough away they won't be able to find us, we hadn't seen them for 6 months. We had planned on setting down on the planet for a few weeks, allowing our people to rest and a chance to replenish our supplies but the Cylons managed to find us, we don't know how yet."

"If you are truly from Earth the Gods have answered our prayers" Laura interrupted.

Jack rubbed a hand over his face. He hated being right and he hated what he was about to say but he also knew it was necessary to be upfront with them. He turned his head slightly and caught the Presidents eye.

"Ma'am, we won't be involved in your war…"

He didn't get any further, and nearly had to look away from the pain and resignation he was seeing in the Presidents face.

"Colonel, we lost the war when that first nuclear warhead hit Caprica." She closed her eyes at the memory of sending her security code and finding out she was the only member of the Cabinet left alive. "We're on the run, and we're just trying to survive. I don't know if there's anyone but Starbuck here that actually wants to keep fighting, but then she is a Viper jock and they're not known for their intelligence"

"All I'd do all day without the Cylon's is drink, smoke and gamble, all to excess."

Sam would swear that she heard Tory mutter under her breath "you do all of that anyway, along with Anders"

"How did you end up on that planet? There was no ship that we could detect and our scans showed no signs of civilisation." Laura tried to bring the conversation back on track.

Jack and Daniel shared a look; hopefully Daniel understood that Jack wanted the abridged version told.

"70 years ago we discovered and alien device we call a Stargate…"

End Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers: Please see chapter 1.

To all those who reviewed chapter 1, thank you I wasn't expecting such a fantastic reception for this story.

AN: Please do not presume anything, I try to make sure everything is covered and explained by the end of the story.

**Chapter 2**

Jack was bored.

They had been stuck on the Galactica for five days now and he had nothing to do. Daniel was absorbing the Colonial's history and culture through Admiral Adama's personal library. Carter had been splitting her time between their CIC and the maintenance deck learning how their FTL drives worked and trying to find a planet with a gate that they could get to with little fuss and Teal'c had taken to spending all his time in the Gym.

There was also the fact that they were tailed everywhere by guards and that irritated him a little but then again if these people turned up on Earth their positions would be reversed. They weren't trusted just yet and Jack got that he really did, but he really didn't like his every move being watched, it made him nervous.

Standing in the middle of the corridor, Jack looked each way contemplating his options. He could join Teal'c in the gym, Carter with the knuckle draggers (how they came up with that particular nickname was beyond Jack), going to see Daniel was out of the question he wasn't quite that bored yet or he could take Starbuck up on her offer to learn about the Vipers.

He was still contemplating his options when Saul Tigh's voice came over the ship wide speakers.

"Prepare to jump the fleet."

This was his fourth FTL jump and he still hated it. Jack didn't think he would ever get used to it.

"Civilian Vessels are away… jump in 5…4…3…2…1"

As the countdown occurred Jack reached out and grasped the wall, clenching his eye's shut. It kinda helped.

"1252 to go"

---------

"So?" Laura looked at Jack Cottle expectantly.

"It's strange; mostly they come up as human." Jack mumbled around an unlit cigarette as he searched his pockets for a lighter.

"But…" Bill prompted him at the same time as Laura growled "Mostly?"

"There's some extra bits in there I can't identify. Teal'c's is just plain weird, but they told us from the outset he isn't from Earth so I wasn't expecting it to be our version of normal." He finally found the lighter and paused long enough to light the cigarette. "It's Major Carter's blood work that I'm having trouble with, her DNA reads her as human but blood tests reveal an odd protein marker and some type of heavy metal in her blood."

"Is it Cylon?" These strangers had done nothing threatening yet but Laura was still concerned.

"According to Athena unless it's something they've developed since she last downloaded and retrieved Hera it isn't. I showed her everything I found in their blood and she didn't recognise any of it being of Cylon origin"

Laura nodded, the Cylons had made leaps and bounds in technology developing and evolving faster than she thought was possible so it was entirely conceivable that this was a Cylon trap.

She was well aware that there was a great many things that these people weren't telling them, so far she had been fine to leave it that way but with what she was being told Laura didn't want to leave anything to chance.

"Call Colonel O'Neill down here, I want to ask him myself"

From the looks on their faces she knew the two of them were about to argue but she had been running the fleet from Life station on and off for four years now. Why should this be any different and while they had not informed the visitors of her illness she knew they weren't stupid, they had eyes. Laura knew they were well aware that she was sick and saw no point in hiding it. It wasn't as though she was on her death bed just yet; Jack was merely being cautious and wanting her on IV fluids for a few hours.

Nodding in resignation Bill went over to make the call.

They chatted quietly while waiting for the Colonel to arrive mostly about what they knew of their visitors so far, different observations that the three of them had made.

As Colonel O'Neill strode into life station it once again struck Laura how at ease he seemed. No matter what was thrown at him he still managed to exude this devil may care aura as well as insulting as many people in his general vicinity as possible, but she had little doubt beneath that was an extremely intelligent and dangerous man. The likeness between him and Starbuck was a little scary, and Laura was a bit worried about what would happen should the two of them decide to put the heads together and cause havoc.

Jack himself was a little surprised at being summoned to life station of all places, actually no he wasn't, he'd been expecting it since the Colonials had insisted on his team all having check ups by their physician. He wasn't sure what stage their medical technology was at so had made the decision to let them ask about any strange things they found.

What he was surprised at was when he was ushered to a curtained off area to find President Roslin attached to an IV. They hadn't confirmed or denied that she was ill even though it was fairly obvious and he hadn't expected to be allowed to see her in such a vulnerable state.

"I'm guessing you found some stuff in our blood work you can't explain?"

They nodded, slightly shocked that they didn't even have to ask.

"Major Carter's specifically" The Admiral confirmed.

"You're better off talking to Carter; she's the one who understands all the mumbo-jumbo Doc Fraiser spouted off over the years."

Nodding Bill went over to the wall to request Carters presence in Life Station.

"Oh and if there is anyone else you want knowing this get them here now, we're only explaining this once"

Exchanging a look with Laura, Bill thought for a moment, it was obviously something they didn't want being known by the general population.

"What about during combat, could it affect anything then?" He finally asked.

"At this moment no" Jack scowled at them for making him answer a question he didn't want to "but possibly in the future depending on your relationship with earth and her allies".

'_Nice diplomatic answer Jack'_ He patted himself on the back.

"Get Colonel Tigh and Starbuck then" Laura suggested.

The silence was uncomfortable. Jack was really not happy with where the conversation was going to go; he didn't like the idea of giving away so much information on his team.

After 10 minutes of the only sound being Laura's pen scratching across paper as she signed off on reports, the other three they were waiting for strode through the curtains. Tigh and Starbuck curious as to why their presence was required and Carter nervous about what her presence here meant.

"They found the Naquada?" She queried her CO.

"And the protein marker. I would have gotten Daniel down her but he tends to go down the philosophical road with it all."

She nodded knowing that her CO wanted her to go over the basic facts. No extra's who's where's why's and abilities.

"Is anyone else joining us?" She asked the cubicle in general. Receiving four no's she took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to keep calm.

She hated this part.

"We told you about the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra. The first time we came across the Tok'ra was during a Goa'uld attack on a village, we were evacuating the villagers through the gate when I stopped to help a severely injured man. We didn't know he was a host, until after it left his body for mine and took control of me for several days. The symbiote died inside me, leaving the protein marker you found and as its body broke down it left a heavy metal we call Naquada in my blood, this allows me to work Goa'uld technology."

As she listened to the Major's explanation Laura's gaze was drawn to the younger woman's hands, the thumb and forefinger of her left hand were being rubbed together. At first Laura found it odd that while Carter's voice was controlled, professional and almost detached during the explanation her hands were involved in such a nervous gesture, but then she remembered…

Laura had seen this type of gesture in countless people, from traumatised children she taught back on Caprica before the holocaust to people like Tom Zarek when they spoke about their time in detention on New Caprica. She knew they weren't getting the whole story, but they were being told what they needed to know and nothing more. None of the personal or emotional issues were mentioned, just like when she told their visitors about New Caprica, Laura told them that detention existed but she never mentioned how she still had nightmares about being stuck in that cell, that she hated bright lights even three years later, that her joints ached at the mere thought of cold concrete.

There are some things you can't fake.

So instead she nodded her acceptance and let Bill ask the questions.

Back and forth it went for about a half an hour, some answers were long and involved the two of them talking animatedly about certain things, but giving curt yes or no answers unwilling to expand on certain aspects. Especially when it came to weapons capabilities, Major Carter wouldn't even look anyone in the eye as the Colonel answered that question.

---------

Bill was worried, not about what was being said but what wasn't. When he asked them about weapons the non answer he got…

Well it worried him.

He didn't have much time to expand on the thought or line of questioning as the ships loud speakers crackled to life.

"Admiral Adama, report to CIC"

Laura sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, even though Doc Cottle had removed the IV some 15 minutes before she hadn't bothered moving, she watched worriedly as Bill asked to be patched directly through to the CAP. Hoping she'd managed to save enough energy to stand under her own power Laura gingerly slid off the bed and onto her feet. Unfortunately her legs immediately buckled underneath her, being the closest to her Jack lunged forward and wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her from hitting the floor just has a bright white light engulfed him and Carter.

When the light receded the three of them had disappeared.

---------

"What the FRAK" Laura gasped trying to get out of O'Neill's hold as she attempted to work out what just happened. She didn't care that she would be kissing deck if he let her go; she just wanted to get away from him.

"Thor, you have to send her back" She could vaguely make out Sam Carters voice in her panic.

"Hey hey hey, calm down" O'Neill said to her, one arm still wrapped around her waist holding her upright, the other grasping her jaw gently forcing her to look at his face.

"It was an accident, Thor just meant to grab us, and he's not going to hurt you. He's a friend, President Laura Roslin of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol meet Supreme Commander Thor of the Asguard."

None of the noticed the startled look on Thor's face when Jack mentioned her title.

He turned her head so that she was looking at a small grey being, a small naked grey being with big black eyes.

Laura let out a small squeak of surprise as her eyes widened slightly then rolled back in her head as she passed out.

"She is ill" Thor stated unnecessarily before moving one of the stones on his command console causing Laura to disappear in a flash of light. "It is very advanced, I do not know if the medical pods will be able to help her."

"Umm, how long will she be in there?" Daniel queried nervously.

"The damage to her system is great and she is very weak, it will take some time to verify if it is reversible or not."

"Crap" Jack groaned "Ok, there's a ship over there that's going into a massive panic because we just beamed away with their President, and we can't send her back because you're playing the good Samaritan and trying to fix her."

"That is a correct assessment of the current situation O'Neill."

"Hey Thor, there were four others with the Colonel and I when you beamed us over, can you bring one of them over so that we can explain and prove that she's still alive?" Sam asked.

"Yes"

---------

Not that he would ever admit it to anyone but Bill Adama was panicking.

He'd been standing there listening to Hot Dog describe the massive ship that had just appeared among the fleet when two of their visitors and the President had disappeared in a flash of light.

He stood there mouth gaping, as Saul grabbed one of the other phones and started screaming at CIC to find out what the Frak was going on and Starbuck stood there eyes darting between the spot where the three of them had been standing, trying to comprehend what was going on.

Through his shock he could only really make out one thing that Saul said "What do you mean they're missing as well?"

He was startled out of his shock when the light re-appeared surrounding Starbuck. Bill didn't think he'd ever seen Saul move as fast as he dived towards her in a vain attempt to stop the light from taking away their best Pilot but to no avail, before he even blinked they were both gone as well.

---------

Over on Thor's ship Jack had to smother a laugh as Thor's transport beam receded just in time for him to see Saul Tigh hit Kara Thrace in a fantastic tackle and the two of them to fly to the ground.

"Frak me!"

Jack wasn't sure which one of the said it but it pretty much summed up his reaction the first time Thor beamed him up.

Without giving them a moment to completely get their bearings, Daniel walked up to them and offered Kara his hand.

"Sorry about that, Thor wanted to talk to us and President Roslin was accidentally brought along."

Kara took his hand and yanked him to the ground wrapping and arm around his neck and using him as a personal shield while pushing her pistol to his temple.

"Greetings" Thor walked through the others to stand directly in front of Kara, Saul and Daniel. "I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asguard Fleet. When I detected SG1 on your ships I was concerned for their well being, so I brought them aboard. I did not intend to bring President Roslin with them and I assure you she has come to no harm."

Kara looked the alien up and down trying to asses the kind of threat he could be, deciding he couldn't be much of one she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"You're naked!"

From where he was crouched Saul looked around the room.

"Where is she then? You say she hasn't been harmed, prove it."

"Please release Dr Jackson and I will take you to her."

Looking over her shoulder Kara waited to see what Saul would do, not that they really had a choice, if they wanted to get Roslin back they would need to at least know where she was.

Releasing Daniel the two of them slowly got to their feet wary of their surroundings, not wanting to be jumped by anything that could be lurking in the corners.

"When President Roslin first beamed aboard my sensors noticed several advanced tumours within her body. Complete system failure would have occurred within the next week, so I have placed her within one of our healing pods. It remains to be seen as to whether we can do anything to help her."

"Healing Pods?" Kara queried nervously as she and Saul followed the diminutive alien through his ship.

Daniel was trailing along with them while the rest of the team waited back at command.

"The Asguard are an extremely advanced race." He interjected gently "If anyone can help her they can."

There wasn't much else to say after that so they continued their journey in silence, after several minutes they came to the end of a long hallway, and entered a small room. Embedded in the far wall was a clear pod containing an unconscious Laura Roslin, without preamble Thor went up to the pod to check the readings.

"She is stable for now" His large eyes turned to Kara and Saul taking in their shocked expressions "and some of the degeneration has already been removed and will soon be completely gone, however we cannot stop the cellular degeneration from occurring again. I have detected a genetic predisposition to this particular type of tumour."

"Stop" Kara couldn't believe she was saying this as she blinked back tears, "take her out."

Thor blinked at her in surprise but did not move to stop the pod.

"If what you're telling me is true then no matter what cancer is going to kill her, this is the second time she's been through this." Kara continued emboldened by the fact that no one had interrupted her yet "at least give her the choice, because if I were her I wouldn't want to be healed only to go through this again in another two years. You can always restart right?"

Thor nodded and started to manipulate the controls.

"As I stated previously the pod has already started to heal the cellular degeneration in her body, by my estimates it has extended her life expectancy by approximately two months."

Kara and Saul both nodded and without consultation automatically took a place on either side of the pod, unconsciously protecting their President from any unseen enemy.

Having retreated to the far corner, Daniel merely watched, forgotten and entranced by what he was seeing in these people. He had spent the last few days studying what was left of their history and culture, speaking with people about their lives on the various colonies, Daniel was entranced, he couldn't wait to learn more.

After the cover slid back Kara reached out and took the older woman's hand squeezing gently "Madam President?" She whispered. Laura's eyes started to flutter and she winced at the bright lights.

Saul, being one of the few people to understand her hatred of bright lights looked at Thor.

"Can we dim the lights a little please?" Accordingly the room's lights dropped.

Kara turned her gaze to him, a knowing look in her eyes "Detention?"

"I overheard her and Tory the other day; she still won't let the lights be turned up to full."

Kara nodded, "Same reason I won't lock a door and Zarek won't sit with his back to anyone."

Daniel had known that there was a lot these people weren't telling them, just like SG1 had kept things to themselves, but the hushed conversation shed a lot more light on their situation. On that first day back on Galactica, President Roslin and Starbuck had given them a brief overview of the last four years including their time on a planet they called New Caprica and the resulting Cylon occupation. The Team had suspected that it had been bad but suspecting and knowing were two entirely different things.

A slight cough from the pod caught everyone's attention; Starbuck leaned forward hoping that Laura wouldn't panic if she saw a friendly face. Her eyes fluttered again, this time opening fully and focusing first on the ceiling then on Starbucks face.

"What…" she cleared her throat and tried again "What's going on?"

"A friend of SG1's showed up and…" She shook her head in wonderment "beamed them aboard their ship, you got brought along for the ride."

Kara's eyes darted up and she looked at Saul who nodded, they were doing the right thing.

"Thor says he can heal you, says he's already started." She swallowed nervously.

"But…?" Laura knew there was always a but in this kind of scenario.

"But it might not be permanent. He can reverse the damage done so far but he can't stop the cancer from returning."

Laura nodded taking in her words, she had already used up her second chance, did she want a third? She used to think that the answer would be no, but that was before she knew there was an option, a way out even if it was just for a little while. A way out that wasn't ethically questionable.

Looking over Kara's shoulder directly at Thor she asked the only question's that really mattered right now.

"Why would you do this? Help me? Heal me? What's in it for you?"

"There is nothing 'in it' for me, and I am helping you because I can and because the first time I encountered the people of Kobol 3 millennia ago, I did nothing and they did not survive. I could have helped them find Earth but instead they were destroyed by the Goa'uld"

Laura nodded her mind overloading by this small amount of information, wanting to hear more but knowing she wouldn't be able to comprehend it properly just yet she smiled and said "Thank you" Then turned her attention back to Kara "I'll take whatever time the Gods give me. If it works it works, if it doesn't I'm not going to lose anything by it."

She turned to look at Saul "Make sure Bill knows this is my choice. He probably won't understand." Saul nodded, not really looking forward to explaining this to the Admiral but knowing it had to be done.

"I'm ready" Laura nodded at Thor "See you on the other side"

The Pod reactivated.

---------

Back on Galactica the entire crew were avoiding having the Admiral's ire directed at them. No-one was really sure exactly what had happened, they did know that their visitors had disappeared in a flash of light and that the President, XO and Starbuck were no where to be seen.

That is until a bright light appeared in CIC right in front of the Admiral and when it was gone Saul Tigh, Jack O'Neill and Teal'c were standing there as though nothing had happened.

"I'd order you to be taken to the Brig but somehow I don't think that'll stop you from leaving whenever you want to" he groused, absolutely livid by the days events.

"Can we talk in private?" Jack asked.

Scowling at the trio he beckoned them to follow him up to an enclosed area of CIC.

"The President and Starbuck?" He asked Saul first.

"They're fine, but Jack should start at the beginning."

"That big ship you're deciding on whether or not to attack belongs to one of our allies. The Asguard are currently the most powerful race in this part of the Universe, and they owe us one or two favours so please don't piss off their Supreme Commander while he's healing your President free of charge."

Everyone in CIC heard him bellow.

"WHAT!"

---------

Starbuck hadn't moved from her place beside the healing pod, merely sat there back against the wall, knees pulled up to her chest, gun in hand and ready to be used at a moments notice. Sam had wandered in not long before and sat herself down a few meters away; making sure that Starbuck was between herself and President Roslin. Daniel had told her about the exchange between the two Colonial officers and Sam knew instinctively that Starbuck would use deadly force if she thought that the President was being threatened.

Even with what Thor was doing for the President they weren't trusted yet, the Colonials had been burned too many times. They had lost too much, Sam figured she knew how it felt to lose your faith in life and the universe, for them to overcome the distrust it would take a larger step from them and now was time to open up a bit more. So as not to startle the other woman Sam kept her voice low.

"We didn't know the difference between the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra that first time, and I certainly didn't care that there was one. All I knew was that I was trapped inside my own body; I had to watch as a child's trust was shattered while my own voice threatened to kill her. It paraded around my home, spoke to my friends and team mates all the time pretending to be me. It tried to kill them, it used my own voice, thoughts, feelings and knowledge against me while I screamed and screamed and screamed." Sam's voice was shaking with the effort it took to voice an event from nearly 6 years before but had changed her life and herself so intrinsically.

"How did it die?" Starbuck asked her eyes now focussed solely on Sam.

"She had been hiding from an assassin when we came along; the Goa'uld attacked the Nasyins in an attempt to find her. Once my team realised that I'd been compromised they shipped me straight off to the Brig. I was a sitting duck in there, the Assassin found me and well… I would have died but Jolinar, the Tok'ra, let go so that I could survive. She died for me and yet, I hate her."

Silence descended over the room once again while Starbuck digested what Sam had just shared with her.

"I spent four months locked in an apartment with a Cylon that wanted to play happy families. I killed him he downloaded and came back, I don't remember how many times now…"

---------

Unexpectedly the pod started beeping startling both women from their intense conversation. They had been swapping stories on the types of planes they had each flown, Kara was grateful that Sam had told her about what had happened with Jolinar, up until now she had been finding these people a little bit two dimensional, telling stories with no real passion behind them but now she had a common ground. That and when it came to death defying, adrenaline inducing sports Kara had found a kindred spirit.

Kara was on her feet instantly as Thor walked through the door and over to the console and checked the readings.

"The healing is complete" he intoned unnecessarily as the cover slid back. "It will take some time for her to regain her true strength back. While the cellular degeneration has been reversed the residual loss of muscle and fatty tissues has not."

"What does that mean?" Kara looked over at Sam for a translation.

"The cancer is gone but the side affects such as weight loss etc aren't"

"Ok" Kara muttered to herself while nodding her head "Ok"

She watched as the cover of the pod retracted once more revealing the President, for the first time in Kara's recent memory she looked rested.

Kara watched the President closely waiting for the older woman to come around, Thor had lowered the lights without having to be asked this time so when Laura opened her eyes it was to a quite comfortable setting.

"How are you feeling?" Kara asked.

"I'm…" Laura took stock of her body and the different sensations it was emanating "I've felt better and…" she wiggled her toes and flexed several muscles throughout her body making sure it all still worked "I have most definitely felt worse."

Kara chuckled at that "I told you'd that you'd die old and decrepit surrounded by fat Grandchildren"

---------

"It's been over two hours now" Bill was really not happy and it was taking all of his self control to keep from yelling, he was also still trying to comprehend all that Jack had told him about what was happening. He took a breath to continue on his tirade but stopped abruptly when he saw a light shimmer appear next to Saul, it flickered for several seconds before solidifying into a slightly see through version of Daniel Jackson.

"Hi Guys" he waved jovially "Thor wants you to know it's finished, and Admiral your presence is required over here. Whenever you're ready give a shout and Thor will bring you over"

Exchanging a quick glance with the Admiral Jack grinned at Daniel "We're ready right now. In fact The Admiral here was just telling us how much he was looking forward to seeing Thor's ship"

Without replying Daniel's image shimmered out and the transport beam activated around Jack and Bill, sending them over to Thor's ship.

"So how come you got left behind?" Saul queried Teal'c

"As a measure of good faith, O'Neill would never leave a member of his team behind, for as long as there are members of your fleet with Thor, there shall be a member of SG1 here."

---------

Looking around the command centre as he was beamed in Jack was immediately worried. Sitting off to one side Carter was entertaining The President and Starbuck with a story of some kind, hopefully it wasn't anything that would compromise security, knowing Carter it wouldn't be but he was still worried, there were some damn embarrassing stories about him. From the sounds of it though she was telling a story about one of her childhood escapades that had actually been the cause of Jacob's hair loss over the years.

Glancing over at the Admiral Jack couldn't stop the grin from taking over, the man looked as though the weight of the world had been removed from his shoulders as soon as he saw that the President and Kara were in fact alive and well. Without stopping to be introduced to Thor, Bill strode over to where the three women were sitting giving Starbuck a quick grin he focussed most of his attention on the President.

"You're going to give Jack a conniption with these last minute miracle cures you keep getting." Laura chuckled at the thought of Jack Cottle's face when she got back to Galactica "Not to mention I don't think my heart can keep taking this."

Laura gave him a disbelieving look as she accepted the hand he offered and rose shakily to her feet.

"Bill Adama you're in better shape than most of the 20 year olds we've got on Galactica" She scolded him. "Now I believe the Supreme Commander was going to explain how he came across our ancestors three thousand years ago."

"Wait a second" Kara interrupted "how do you know how fit the Admiral is?" She looked between the two a little leery of the answer.

"Bill can still beat Lee in the boxing ring, and when was the last time one of your Nuggets beat Lee?"

"Ok" Kara nodded "That's understandable, but how do you know that?"

It was Bill's turn to smirk "Cause Lee went and complained about how Daddy kept beating him up. Ever since then your esteemed President has been showing up at the gym and watching us spar whenever she can. She also seems to take sick pleasure in watching Lee get beaten by 'The Old Man'. I'm not sure if his ego can much more of the laughter."

Kara broke into a fit of giggles at the image of the President of the Twelve Colonies heckling the Adama men while they boxed.

"So Laura, you want some company next time?"

---------

After several more minutes of banter much to the amusement of SG1, as they'd yet to see the lighter side of these people. Things started to settle down and everyone looked at Thor expectantly waiting for the promised explanation.

"Three thousand years ago I cam across a small fleet of ships not unlike the one you have now." Thor started.

"There is not much to tell, we have always had the practice of leaving less advanced races to grow and develop on their own, and this time was no different. I managed to ascertain that they were searching for a planet called Earth, although there was no planet known by that name at the time, their destination was clear. They were heading for the sector of space that was controlled by Ra. We left them to their own devices and their fleet was caught in the crossfire of a battle between Ra and Apophis, it was decimated though they fought and did large amounts of damage to both of the System Lords. The last we knew by the end of the battle there was nothing left of the Fleet, and no survivors."

All through his story Laura had been unable to tear her eyes away from Thor, even now in the silence she sat there watching him as tears spilled down her cheeks.

It was over they had nowhere to go.

**End Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note:** Just to let you know this story is now finished so I'm posting chapter 3 a day early. I'll probably post the rest throughout the weekend.

Once again thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed.

Please see chapter one for disclaimers.

**Chapter 3**

"So that's it then" Kara was the first to break the silence. "The thirteenth tribe really doesn't exist and we're going to spend the rest of our days on those Gods dammed ships running from the Cylons." She took a deep shaky breath "we may as well just surrender now."

Reaching behind Laura, Bill grasped her hand where it lay on the floor and squeezed it tightly.

"No, there has to be something, somewhere…"

Locking eyes with her commanding officer Sam waited for his permission before speaking "There is" the three Colonials looked up at her in shock. "There are many planets all through this Galaxy that are perfect, they're empty and one of them is yours if you want it, there's no one who would question you settling there. We can take you to them, pick any one of them and it's your's, we'll talk to our Superiors about helping you get settled in."

"We can't" Laura whispered, more to herself that anyone else, Bills head shot up and he looked at her incredulously, a moment later understanding crossed his features. "They'll find us, they always do." She pushed herself up to stand, taking a moment to get her balance "Thankyou for your offer and all the help you've already given us, but I think it's better for all concerned that we part ways now. I will not be responsible for putting another civilisation in danger from the Cylons. We'll head in the opposite direction of Earth, lead them away from you." She locked eyes with Jack begging for them to understand why she was doing this, the tears kept flowing down her cheeks as she moved her gaze over the rest of the team making eye contact with each of them. She hated herself for this but she knew it had to be done.

"You don't deserve to be dragged into our war, if we take you up on this generous offer then you will be."

On either side of her Bill and Kara stood, nodding their agreement.

"It's bad enough that they've destroyed us. Thank you for your hospitality Supreme Commander and everything you've done for us" his eyes flickered over to Laura standing under her own power for the first time in weeks "but I believe that it is best if we return to our ship now."

Thor looked at the three humans standing before him, and he was reminded of why he had been drawn to SG1, why he kept returning to Earth. Why they had become his friends. They were a proud and stubborn people, they would not just give in without a fight, they would fight until their last breaths to ensure those they loved and everything that they stood for remained safe and unharmed. He had seen it multiple times in SG1 and in a far distant memory he saw it in his own people before they had become so powerful that he feared their passion had been lost. Besides the Colonials had no planet and were not part of the Protected Planets treaty, he could help them as much as he wanted and interfere as much as he wanted.

He would not abandon the Colonials, they deserved more than this mere existence, the High Council would not agree, to this course of action but he wanted the passion back. Thor was well aware however that the Colonials would not accept his help willingly. With a nod he moved his hands over the control console and they disappeared in a flash of light.

When the light receded only Teal'c was standing there with SG1's gear at his feet. 

---------

Bill blinked as CIC came into focus around him, automatically reaching out he steadied Laura who, despite her supposed cure, he could see her energy waning, he went to suggest she go and see Doc Cottle but Kara beat him to it. He watched as Starbuck dragged the President out of CIC and towards Life Station despite her protests that she felt fine.

Looking around he saw all of his staff staring at him waiting for an explanation of some sort, instead of indulging them he fixed his eyes on Lieutenant Gaeta.

"Jump the fleet to emergency co-ordinates Gamma."

Immediately CIC sprang into action going about fulfilling the Admirals orders.

---------

"Sir we can't just abandon them…" Sam hadn't moved her eyes from where the three Colonials had just been standing. Trying to comprehend the selfless act the three of them had just performed, but she knew what lengths she and her team had gone to in order to stop the Goa'uld and the Replicators, she could understand the Colonials actions in order to protect others from the Cylons, she didn't like it but she understood and respected them even more for their willingness to sacrifice themselves.

"Do not worry Major Carter; I will not abandon them to an unknown fate." Thor intoned as the Colonial Fleet started to wink out of existence. "From all accounts to allow the Cylons to gain a foothold in this Galaxy would be disastrous."

"And the best way to find the Cylons is to follow the Colonials." Daniel finished the thought. "I thought we weren't going to get involved" He threw a glare at Jack.

"We're not, Thor is and we just happen to be along for the ride." Jack looked around at his team "Right?"

"Indeed" Teal'c rumbled.

"Right, Sir" Sam agreed intoning just enough sarcasm to convince Jack that she'd known they were going to do this all along.

"So how do we track them?" Daniel grinned.

---------

General George Hammond should be used to SG1 being late by now, it seemed that if there was trouble in any part of the Galaxy they were the ones to end up neck deep in it, and if he didn't know better he would think that they actually enjoyed getting in and out of trouble as often as they did. He was certain that they would turn up sooner or later; he just hoped that it was sooner; because no matter how often it happened he still worried that there would be a day that they wouldn't come home.

When a bright flash pervaded his office and deposited Jack O'Neill in front of him the General wasn't all that surprised, and being deposited by an Asgard beam without the rest of his team meant that they had in fact been up to their necks in trouble and were probably about to go haring off to find more.

"You're late!" He looked up at the formerly astray team leader, knowing whatever he was about to be told would be good.

"Sorry about that Sir, we ended up meeting a race from another Galaxy who has what's left of their entire civilisation in spaceships on the run from psychotic robots who wiped out the majority of said civilisation. Ran into Thor, who wants us to come along while he goes to investigate said psychotic Robots and try to stop them before they get a foothold in this Galaxy."

Definitely up to their necks in trouble.

"Where are these people now?" The General asked.

"Somewhere…" Jack waved his hand vaguely towards the ceiling "Thor's tracking them, he figures that the Cylons, that's the psychotic Robots, will show up wherever the Colonials are eventually and he can get an idea as to how dangerous they are etc etc, because the last thing we want is these things teaming up with the Goa'uld or worse the Replicators."

The General nodded taking in what he had just been told, "Just how dangerous do you think they are Colonel?"

"Well Sir, they apparently wiped out 12 planets and 40 billion people in one afternoon and they can imitate humans at the cellular level. According to the Colonial President, nice lady by the way, they have no sure fire way of telling the difference a human and a Cylon."

Hiding a smirk General Hammond nodded "Colonel you and your team are ordered to accompany Thor and do a threat assessment on the Cylons, report back here when you are able."

"Sweet" Jack grinned as the transport beam reactivated and he was gone.

SG1 enjoyed their jobs way too much. 

He bit back a chuckle as the red phone on his desk rang.

"Hammond"

---------

Bill collapsed down onto his couch with and audible grunt. Running a hand over his face he wondered if he would ever manage to start paying off the sleep debt he'd been accumulating over the past years. They had come so close only to be disappointed, again he wasn't sure how much more the people could take, how much more he could take. He blearily opened his eyes when a soft knock sounded at the hatch followed by the door creaking opened and then closing again. He watched as Laura wandered over to the couch and slipped her shoes and jacket off before settling down next to him.

"Cottle finally release you?" He queried, he hadn't seen her since Starbuck had dragged her to Life Station wanting to confirm what they had been told by Thor. Bill had to admit she looked better than he had seen her in months, she was still tired and quite weak but he figured that would change after a few good meals and a decent nights sleep.

"Only after taking a good chunk of blood, more scans than I want to think about and forcing several pounds of protein down my throat" She replied and wry smile on her face. "He was standing there looking at my scans and blood work when I left muttering under his breath. Something along the lines of 'Frakking luckiest woman I've ever met, why I keep treating her when she just goes and gets miracle cures any way' I like to think that he's happy that I'm not dead so he'll get over it eventually." Bill chuckled as she managed to produce a fairly accurate Cottle grumble.

After several minutes of comfortable silence Bill finally spoke.

"Did we do the right thing?"

"Yes" was the unequivocal answer "We've spent nearly five years trying to protect the last of our Civilisation, using Earth as a touchstone of hope. I was beginning to wonder if we we're the last of humanity now I know we're not, if everything that they've said is true then they have their own demons to vanquish and battles to fight, I won't let them take on ours. When we've lost the Cylons once and for all then we can come back and take them up on their offer, until then I won't put anyone else in danger from the Cylons."

Bill looked at her and nodded "And that's why you're the President."

"Duly elected President thank you."

Laura never failed to remind him that she was actually now the elected President; she wasn't taking over because everyone else was dead, nor was she cleaning up someone else's mess. She had won the election four months ago fair and square. Despite her failing health and the knowledge that she wouldn't live to see out the term people had still voted for her and now with Thor's help she would get to finish out this term, and maybe do another she hadn't decided yet. Laura would be close to 60 by the time the next election came around so she was almost tempted to retire from public life at the end of the term but she knew she would be bored within weeks, even if she went back to teaching. That and while Tom was a fantastic Vice President she still had her doubts about how he would go as President and there was no one else she trusted to keep the fleet going and together.

"Sorry, duly elected President." He chuckled before letting the seriousness of their actions take over him once again. "I would've jumped at their offer, it was a dream come true, but you're right it's only a matter of time before the Cylons find us again, its better that we keep moving for now. Question really is what are you going to tell the Civilians?"

They dropped back into silence, neither of the really knowing the answer to that question and neither wanting to answer it anyway.

---------

It was really no surprise that when SG1 and Thor caught up with the Colonial Fleet they were being attacked by one of the System Lords, it was immediately evident they were outgunned and the Galactica was doing it's best to buy some time for the Civilian fleet to get away but their pilots were being hammered.

It didn't help that two Basestars jumped into the fray just as they thought everyone was going to get out of this alive. As the last of the Civilian ships completed their FTL jump the Vipers turned to make their combat landings onto Galactica, there were two unlucky Vipers that everyone could see would not make it in time. Starbuck and Apollo had been trying to goad some Death Gliders into following them into Galactica's firing range unfortunately the Cylons appeared and that forced them to change tactics and attempt to get the Death gliders and Raiders to attack each other but they ended up at the opposite side of the battle from Galactica, there was no way they could make it back by the time they jumped. Going into battle both Kara and Lee had always known that any one of them could be their last, and if today was the day then they was going to take out as many of the Frakkers that they could. That was until Starbuck realised why one of the ships was so familiar. 

"Starbuck to Thor? Is that you?" She opened up her comm to every channel she could hoping that it was a friendly ship she was about to try and land on, and that Lee would follow her in there.

"It is, how may I be of assistance Captain Thrace?" Kara released the breath she was holding.

"You got any room on that ship for me Apollo and our Raptors, Galactica's frakked if she waits for us to get there before jumping to the rest of the fleet."

"Most certainly, there is a hanger bay on the port side, you may land in there. I will send Major Carter to meet you."

"See you soon… Galactica – Starbuck?" she switched to a closed channel.

"Starbuck you and Apollo need to get your arses back here." The stress in Tigh's voice was palpable as it came through the speakers.

"Don't you worry about us, my buddy Thor'll get me and Apollo out safe and sound, get out of here and we'll see you on the other side. Starbuck out"

"Apollo follow me, I got us a ride"

Lee could hear the un-adulterated glee in her voice and could only pray to Gods that he wasn't sure existed that she wasn't going to get them killed, as he followed her around to the port side of the supposedly safe ship.

---------

In Galactica's CIC Bill's eyes widened as he heard Starbucks words, knowing he had to trust the pilot, if she said they were going to be ok, then they were going to be ok.

"Jump now" his order carried across the room.

He just didn't know how he would live with himself if he was wrong and had left them behind to die.

---------

Despite having been on Thor's ship previously Kara had never really appreciated it's mammoth size until it was just her and her Viper flying along side looking for the port side hanger bay, and unlike Lee she hadn't actually been flying CAP when it was previously with the fleet. She was so distracted by the size and the combat going on around them that if she hadn't caught the familiar blond head of Samantha Carter (it was shocking enough that the woman was standing unprotected in what by all appearances was an open airlock) she would have missed the hanger bay all together. Turning her Raptor into the bay she felt an almost buzzing electricity skitter over her body and couldn't contain the gasp of surprise as the air shimmered around her. Immediately she could feel the difference, the pull of gravity and the feeling of atmosphere returning to her Viper.

Pulling the cover back she disconnected her helmet before jumping out of the Viper, landing lightly on her feet in front of Sam.

"So is there any particular reason you guys are stalking us, or couldn't you survive without our brand of hotness in your lives?" Sam chuckled at the Colonial Pilot, glad to see she wasn't pissed off that they'd been followed despite the selfless gesture her President and Admiral had made the day before, although Apollo who she hadn't had much to do with while on Galactica looked a little peaked.

Smirking Sam lead them out into the main part of the ship and towards the control centre "Thor decided he wanted to do a threat assessment on the Cylons and we came along for the ride. Nothing like a space battle to see what you could be up against, we just didn't expect you to end up tangling with Baal otherwise you never would have known we we're there. President Roslin doesn't want your problems put on us and you shouldn't have to deal with the Goa'uld on top of everything else, they're our problems not yours."

Kara stopped short, going over the other women's words in her head, shrugging slightly she broke into a run to catch up "Fair call" Lee however didn't agree.

"Wait, Starbuck. We can't just… Starbuck" but she just laughed at him.

The three of them continued to walk in silence as they wove their way through the ship towards the bridge.

"Captain Thrace, welcome." Thor greeted her.

"Hey Thor, thanks for the ride, this is Commander Lee Adama, he's our CAG," she smirked over at Lee knowing he could quite easily kill her for her next comment "he laughs in the face of danger and then hides until it goes away!"

"Welcome Commander Adama, you will find it re-assuring that I do not anticipate any dangerous situations aboard my ship at this time, and it is no problem Captain Thrace. We will be joining your fleet soon; I would however like to observe the battle for a few more minutes. It is imperative that we have an idea as to the capabilities of the Cylons in the event that they gain a foothold in this Galaxy."

"We were just about to jump again when that mother frakker landed on top of us and started attacking. I assume they're your friends the Goa'uld?"

"You assume correctly." Jack piped up from his spot by the windows watching the battle. "We are curious about the weapons and defence systems of the Raiders and Basestars."

"Technologically they're superior to us," Kara started, more than happy to tell them what she could about the Cylons strengths and weaknesses, completely ignoring Lee's protests that this was classified information "their armour is top notch but they still use force propelled and nuclear weapons like us. The Raiders aren't just machines though, they're sentient, when you destroy one it downloads into a new body, it remembers and learns and passes on its information to the others. It's learning constantly, you can try the same trick twice but chances are it's not going to work the second time. You have to be smarter than it, think outside the box, it may learn faster and retain more knowledge than us but it doesn't have our capacity for imagination. Its logic will tell it that something is impossible, that it can't be done, but humans aren't logical and I don't believe in impossible, nothing's impossible until I've tried to do it and failed and even then I'll try again and again until it works. The Cylons aren't like that, they're too cerebral and limited in their ability to think laterally and take that sideways jump that your gut is telling you to take but everything logical says that it will never work, and that's why we've survived this long, we're unpredictable and no matter what, that is the one thing they can't counter."

"I see" Thor hadn't taken his eyes off the battle but they all knew he was listening intently. The more he learned about these Colonials the more he saw how alike they and the Tau'ri were, the sheer determination to survive and their sense of honour leading them to what some of the Asgard saw to be a futile fight against those stronger and more advanced. No matter how often they were knocked down they still got up again fighting harder and harder after every set back. Some days Thor despaired at their apparent foolishness but most he was astounded by their ability to continue on and win against the most horrible odds. Nor was he under any illusions as to their humanity, while he had never been told any specifics Thor was quite aware that the last few years had been hard, many tough decisions had been made and many of the Colonials would have been forced to make decisions and do things they never would have even considered under other circumstances.

Such was war.

"It looks like the Raiders have superior manoeuvrability but the Death Gliders weapons and armour are better." Sam had moved to the view port and was watching the battle. 

When they had first appeared the Cylons had attempted to take on Thor's ship but had very quickly learned that nothing they had would touch it and it's weapons were far superior to their own, they had given up on that idea and moved in to engage Baal's forces, it seemed that of the small fighters neither was gaining an upper hand Sam suspected that it wouldn't be long until both either ran (which she knew was highly unlikely) or someone's reinforcements showed up.

Slowly the better weapons and armour triumphed over manoeuvrability and more and more Raiders disappeared off the screen. Finally a Death Glider managed to break through their lines and get hits on the Base Star; it wasn't long before more made it through to bolster the attack.

Lee and Kara gaped in shock as it exploded and the last of the Raiders were destroyed.

Thor quickly engaged the hyper drive lest the Goa'uld decide to take his chances and attack the Asgard vessel.

---------

Several hours and three jumps later Bill was worried, there was no sign of Thor's ship yet and he strongly suspected that he made the wrong call.

He was sitting opposite Laura in her office being stared at by the woman herself. From a Presidential point of view Bill knew he had made the only call that he could, two Pilots versus Galactica the fleet's only protection. The Admiral and the President were in complete agreement of that.

Bill and Laura however were devastated at the thought of loosing Lee and Kara.

"CIC to Admiral Adama, CIC to Admiral Adama" Echoed through the Galactica. Before either of them could move a familiar white light enveloped them and deposited them back on the bridge of Thor's ship. Looking around he saw Kara grinning impishly at them while Lee was in the background glaring exasperatedly at Kara.

In other words they were fine and things were fairly normal as far as they were concerned.

It did worry The Admiral a little that despite several jumps and close to 200 light years away from where they left Thor and SG1 they had been found so easily, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind for he was simply grateful that they had been here to save Lee and Kara.

Laura, it seemed recovered first from the unexpected beaming.

"Supreme Commander, it seems that once again we are in your debt, I'm just going to assume that you being there was a happy coincidence and be grateful to you for saving Starbuck and Apollo's lives." Despite her words there was an edge of steel in her voice that made it perfectly clear there had better be a good explanation for their appearance or she would be extremely put out.

**End Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: **Now that I've had some sleep I'm posting chapter 4. Thank you for everyone who has read and reviewed.

**Begin Chapter 4.**

While from a strategic point of view Thor's logic for following them was sound, but Laura still couldn't help but feel they'd been played. She hadn't thought much on it at the time but now looking back onto their previous conversation she could see that Thor and SG1 had given in far too easily and should've known that they were up to something.

If their positions had been reversed she would never have abandoned them to an unknown fate. After a very brief explanation Bill had been sent back to the Galactica leaving Laura, Lee and Kara to deal with Thor and SG1, he wasn't entirely happy about that but he would already be missed and could cover up for Laura until she came back on board. He was a little worried about leaving them there but they had proved themselves trustworthy more than once now and there was little he could do about it without telling the whole fleet just how powerful Thor was.

Glaring out at the room in general Laura was finding it hard to orate what she was currently thinking and feeling. A quick glance at Lee and Kara told her that they were leaving it all up to her.

Narrowing her eyes at Jack O'Neill she quickly decided that he would be the easiest to get information out of, she had noticed that Daniel and Sam tended to go off on tangents that just ended up confusing her, Teal'c would simply nod and raise that eyebrow of his (or say indeed). It was another aspect in which Kara and Jack were highly similar, if she pushed the right buttons then he would simply blurt out the answer she was looking for, Laura had no doubt that he was a formidable man and under most circumstances would not break easily. Fortunately Laura wasn't most interrogators and was very good at getting the truth from people when she was so inclined, sometimes treating an adult like a recalcitrant child worked best.

That is as long as she kept her temper and didn't show her hand too early.

"Really it's your own fault that we're here anyway" Kara was impressed, Laura hadn't even had to say anything, the silence alone was frustrating the Colonel enough to cause him to speak.

Laura raised her eyebrow, she hadn't expected that.

"If you'd just accepted our offer then we wouldn't have had to sneak around and chances are that Baal wouldn't have even attacked you while you hung out with Thor. The Goa'uld may be the school yard bullies around here but none of them want to go against an Asgard mothership unless they're assured a win, and the only one with the stones to think he can win is Anubis and if he'd been the one to show up you would have been space debris before we even got here."

Crossing her arms over her chest Laura's silent stare dared him to keep going.

"And don't try and pull that 'they're our problem' BS with me, if they're a threat to us that makes them our problem and now that they've tangled with the Goa'uld and lost then good. They might just back off for a little while and give you some breathing room and even if they get to Earth we can look after ourselves so you don't need to worry about us. We've been doing a pretty good job at not being annihilated over the last 7 years."

The room dropped into silence with the only disturbance being Daniel muttering under his breath.

"In this reality…"

---------

Jack was getting really frustrated, he didn't know whether President Roslin was just being stubborn or had serious reservations about accepting their help and it was annoying the crap out of him. He was beginning to suspect that she would refuse their help again when Thor spoke up.

"You need not be concerned for the Tau'ri, they are more than able to defend themselves. Also I believe it to be quite advantageous that there has already been one battle between the Cylons and the Goa'uld, despite his victory Baal did not come out of this without losses of his own. He will not be pleased about this and will be seeking out the Cylons in an attempt to get rid of them before they can become a larger threat to his already precarious position. As will all the System Lords once they received news of this battle."

The glare on Laura's face broke into a completely neutral mask before she turned away from them and walked slowly over to the view port. Out there in space was the fleet, _Her Fleet_, she counted every one of the ships naming them in her head. Every ship had a number attached to it, and everyday that number fluctuated, Tory updated her on the headcount every single day telling her of births and deaths throughout the fleet. Every ship had a Captain and she knew all their names, she knew who their Co-Pilots were, she trusted them to get their people _Her People_ to the next set of co-ordinates to keep their civilisation going and their people _Her People _safe. She knew that many wanted to lay down their burdens, herself included, but could they risk it again. They had tried it before, they had been found and the Cylons hadn't just tried to kill their bodies but their hearts and souls.

Could they risk it again? Could she risk their civilisation on a dream, they'd tried it before and it hadn't worked.

Her inner argument was interrupted when she spied Lee and Kara in the reflection of the view port; they were doing some sort of elaborate miming communication. Should they disturb her, talk to her, would she listen to them? Which one of them should it be? She nearly laughed out loud when Kara tucked her hands into her armpits and waggled her elbows up and down accusing Lee of being a chicken.

Finally it was decided that yes one of them should go and talk to her and a rather violent game of Viper, Raptor, Battlestar took place to decide which one of them would actually risk interrupting her.

Laura found all of this highly amusing and didn't let it show – as per normal, but then again she and Bill spent quite a bit of time laughing at the two of them. They were quite possibly the most amusing not-couple she had ever come across.

Lee eventually won Viper, Raptor, Battlestar and did a silent victory dance until a glaring Kara punched him in the arm. Pretending to play the gentleman Lee bowed at Kara and made a sweeping gesture with his arm, which earned him a kick in the thigh that nearly dropped him to the floor, as she stalked past him.

Schooling her feature so that there was no trace of amusement in them Laura pretended to be startled when Kara dropped a light hand onto her shoulder.

"Madam President, maybe they're right?" She started, Kara took a deep breath to continue but Laura spoke up before she could continue.

"I know, but I need to speak to Bill and Tom first. I can't be objective about this, too much has happened, and I…" she couldn't finish.

Kara nodded in understanding the last time they had thought it was over and they could rest they had all been burned badly and many of them were still hurting. Kara loved her husband, and she loved Lee, throughout her life she had never had much faith in others, it was always only in herself and her faith in herself had been ripped away in those months trapped in those rooms with Leoben. While she had admitted as much to Laura and regained some of that sense of self back Kara still had trouble putting it in others. Other than the Admiral, Laura had never fully trusted another with the well being of the fleet, Gaius Baltar had done to much damage, and as pragmatic as Laura was the damage was too deep and still four years later there was still a deep distrust of her own decision making ability that had been a gnawing in her stomach since the day Laura had chose Baltar over Wally Grey to run as her Vice-President.

Turning back towards Thor and SG1, Laura walked back towards them. 

"We'll need some time. This isn't just my decision." She turned and looked directly at Jack "Would one of your team be willing to attend a meeting with the Quorom to answer any questions they might have?"

"Carter?" He turned to his 2iC.

"Happy to Sir."

There was a flash of light and Laura found herself back in her office Sam Carter standing by her side.

"Tory! I need you to get in contact with the Vice President and the Quorum, I'm holding an emergency meeting as soon as everyone is aboard, the meeting will be closed, no Press, no Aides, and no Public. It'll be The Quorum, the Vice President, The Admiral, Major Carter and myself. That's it no questions, no excuses."

---------

Laura was beginning to regret including the Quorum in this decision. After explaining the events of the last few days and repeating what they had been told by Thor Laura had been forced to sit back and listen as chaos reigned and different members took to yelling at her, Major Carter and each other. Sitting to her left Sam leaned in to mutter in her ear.

"Are they always like this?"

"No" Laura grinned wryly "they're actually taking this quite well."

"Ah" Sam leaned back in her chair and continued to watch and listen.

Across the room Tom Zarek regarded Laura with a thoughtful gaze, letting the cacophony wash over him. The night Laura had been healed by Thor, he had come over to Galactica and been told everything by Laura and Bill, when they first told him of their high handed decision he had been livid and had threatened to have her impeached for this particular decision. It had taken all of Laura and Bill's combined persuasive power to get him calmed down enough to listen somewhat rationally to their reasoning.

He had agreed with them… eventually

Now watching the rest of the Quorum explode in anger he sat back and watched Laura; watched the whispered conversation between her and the woman who was from Earth but not their Earth. It was all very complicated but very simple at the same time. Deciding he'd had enough of the yelling Tom stood and waited for the room at large to quieten down and turn their attention to him. After close to a minute it finally happened, when the last whispers petered out he spoke.

"First of all, no matter what you think President Roslin didn't have to include us she could have simply told us what was going to happen and left it at that, now it comes down to this. Are we going to accept their offer and find ourselves a new home or are we going to keep running. I don't like the idea of spending the rest of my life on a ship, but I don't want to risk our population on the off chance that the Cylons won't find us again."

"That's not what you were saying when we wanted to settle New Caprica, Tom" Sarah Porter pointed out nastily.

"Times change Sarah and people change. I'll admit, this scares me, we've barely survived the Cylons and we've already had to fight these Goa'uld once but…" he took a deep breath "we can't spend the rest of out lives running, and we can't spend it afraid. This decision is not a light one, I want to hear more from Major Carter about the situation with the Goa'uld before we go any further, and I'm not willing to say yes or no on what I've heard so far."

**End Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 5

**Begin Chapter 5**

Re-materialising back in the Gate room on Earth Jack and Teal'c were met not by General Hammond but by a woman of whom neither of them recognised.

It was slightly disconcerting, Jack was a little bit worried that the gate had broken and sent him to the wrong reality.

"Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c, welcome home." Elizabeth Weir was nervous; all gate travel had been suspended barring emergencies until further notice so this was the first time she'd had to greet a team coming home. "Where is the rest of your team?"

"George!" Jack exclaimed trying to cover his shock "You've dyed your hair!" at least the woman had the good grace to blush.

"My apologies, General Hammond has been reassigned to Home World Security, I'm Dr Elizabeth Weir I've taken over command of the SGC."

Jack looked her up and down, wondering if this was some plot of the NID's to take over the SGC again or if something else was going on.

"Ok then, Carter and Daniel are still with Thor. If you're The Man then we need to talk." 

He watched as she pinned him with a measuring look. The same look Carter and Doc Fraiser got when trying to decided if some poor soul was worth the effort of eviscerating or not. He knew then that Elizabeth Weir was a dangerous woman, whether she was a danger to him and his team or not remained to be seen.

"Once you've cleared medical, come to my office and we'll talk."

She turned and walked away heading back to the control room and her office.

---------

The relief on Doc Fraiser's face was palpable as she spied Jack and Teal'c striding through the infirmary doors only to be replaced with worry when she realised that Sam and Daniel weren't with them.

"They're fine Doc." Jack reassured her quickly as she ushered them towards the back of the infirmary.

"What going on around here?" he muttered quietly as she started his physical.

"No-one is really sure, scuttlebutt say that the President is preparing to go public before his second term is over and he's worried about the appearances, wants a friendlier face running things here so that it doesn't look like the Military is trying to keep all the goodies to themselves."

He winced as she pushed a needle into his posterior.

"So what's this Dr Weir like?"

He turned to look at her after doing up his pants.

"I'll let you find that out for yourself" She smirked.

---------

Elizabeth Weir was evil, Jack decided in that first meeting, but she was the good kind of evil, the same kind of evil as Carter and Fraiser.

After explaining the basics of the Colonials situation as well as Thor's involvement and giving her an overview of the last two weeks Jack sat back and waited.

"Ok, here's what we'll do" Elizabeth leaned forward on both of her elbows "I want you two to head back to the fleet, do whatever you need to do, I really don't care what as long as you stay alive. Once they've decided where they want to settle let me know and I'll gate over to start formalising a relationship with their President. I trust your team to inform me of anything I need to know in regards to these people, their culture and history especially the last few years."

Jack looked at her steadily trying to gauge whether she had a hidden agenda or not. From what Doc Fraiser had told him, Elizabeth Weir was a top notch negotiator, and while that meant she would be able to lie quite easily and convincingly Jack's bull shit detector was seldom if ever wrong. Despite sensing nothing duplicitous about her demeanour he was still wary, he didn't know this woman like General Hammond but he really didn't have much of a choice.

"Not a problem" he nodded "We'll be on our way then shall we!"

"Not so fast" She held one hand up to stop them, as they got halfway out of their seats.

"There's just one more thing we need to discuss." Jack and Teal'c re-took their seats with a little bit of trepidation.

"Now I am under no illusions as to what you're thinking about my taking over command here at the SGC. I didn't go out looking for this, up until a week ago I had no idea that the program existed. The President approached me, although to be honest with you I'm not exactly sure why but that's neither here nor there and not the point of this conversation. You need to know that I have no hidden agenda, I have been assigned a job to do and I will do it to the best of my ability although I am also completely aware that there are others who do have hidden agenda's." Elizabeth took a deep breath and plowed on knowing that there was no turning back now. "I've heard stories about you Colonel O'Neill and not all of them are flattering, in fact most are downright alarming but you need to know that I've been in politics long enough to be able to read between the lines and decide for myself." Jack relaxed back against his chair knowing now was not the time to interrupt "I would ask that you give me the same courtesy" a well-shaped eyebrow rose as silence descended over the office.

"I don't know you" Jack started "before today I had never even heard your name, you've got a big pair of shoes to fill. George Hammond is well respected and loved here at the SGC for the last seven years he has run this command well and is by far one of the best commanding officers I have ever had the privilege to work under. The only question I have is how far are you willing to go to protect the men and women of this command? What lengths will you go to, to protect Earth?" He held a hand up to forestall her inevitable interruption "We don't need to hear your answer, we need to see it." He got up and walked out of the office without letting Elizabeth answer.

"The Tau'ri are a formidable people" Teal'c stood "I hope you are worthy of the trust that has been put in you to continue to uphold the legacy that General Hammond has left you."

Elizabeth was speechless.

---------

As promised Sam and Daniel were waiting for them when Jack and Teal'c returned to the planet they had gated back to Earth from 24 hour earlier. Jack immediately dragged his team off for a private conference to inform them of the developments back on Earth.

As expected they were floored by the news that General Hammond had been replaced, but also as expected Carter took it as part of life in the Military. Assignments changed, people moved on, you dealt with it and continued with your orders, but that didn't mean she wouldn't miss the General on a more personal level.

Daniel's reaction was slightly different though, he knew the name Elizabeth Weir, in fact he was able to shed a little more light on what she did, apparently Daniel had used a lot of her previous work as a starting point when he drafted the treaty with the Tok'ra.

That's the kind of qualification you can't fake.

Jack simply nodded and added this new information to the profile of Elizabeth Weir he was building in his head.

---------

Kara wondered if Thor had better things to do. He was the Supreme Commander of what was supposedly a very powerful fleet, if his ship was anything to go by, so why was he hanging around protecting their sorry arses.

After the monster Quorum session in which Laura had dragged the Admiral and Sam into and informed them all of what had happened with Thor and SG1 from all reports the three of them and the Vice-President had sequestered themselves in the Admirals quarters, there had been a lot of yelling and large amounts of the Knuckle draggers brew consumed. Kara had showed up about two hours into their 'debriefing' to talk to the Admiral about the latest batch of Nuggets and suffice it to say there was no discussion about the Nuggets and she had joined them. Another hour later Apollo and Saul Tigh had dragged a worried Daniel Jackson inside and things had only gotten more raucous from there.

Kara was impressed; Sam and Daniel could hold their alcohol.

Apparently Colonel O'Neill was quite upset when he found out about the impromptu party, although Kara suspected it was because he didn't get to join in. As it turned out Sam and Daniel had been faking them out all night and had only actually had one drink each.

That impressed Kara even more.

The Quorum was willing to settle on a planet, but they weren't ready to choose one just yet. Apparently they wanted to see each planet personally first before making their decision. After the farce that was New Caprica none of them were willing to settle somewhere that was less than perfect, Sam had pointed out that she had been to every single one of the planets they were showing and could easily answer any questions in regards to natural resources, weather patterns but apparently they didn't trust her judgment and wanted to see it all with there own two eyes and only once they had seen all the planets would they make a decision as to which one to settle on.

Many hours had been spent trying to talk them out of this course of action but they were adamant.

6 Weeks and four planets later Thor had been recalled by the Asgard High Council and when SG1 checked in with Stargate Command Dr Weir advised them that the IOA was pushing to start formalising a relationship and she would be joining them within the hour.

---------

Despite having dealt with both President Roslin and Dr Weir previously – though never at the same time - Jack had never quite managed to put the similarities together, not that they could pass off as twins or even sisters but there was just something there. When he saw the two of the standing next to each other he couldn't suppress the "crap" that managed escape his lips. When the two of them turned and glared at him at the same time he had to really fight the urge to take a step back and he wasn't the only one disquieted by the sight. Starbuck stepped through the door just as he was being glared at and she had the same issue as he did.

"Frak me!"

Jack was very grateful when the glares moved from him to Starbuck and then it seemed that the two of them got bored of glaring at the hapless members of their respective militaries and went back to discussing whatever it was they were discussing when Jack had inelegantly put his foot in it.

He heard Starbuck's mouth close with an audible snap as her eyes darted between the two women. Stepping forward so she was standing shoulder to shoulder with Jack, Kara turned her head speaking so that hopefully only Jack could hear her.

"Do they…" she started.

"Oh yeah…" he replied just as quietly.

"So I'm not…"

"Nope, you're not."

"Ok"

Obviously Jack and Kara weren't talking quietly enough because the two women in question had both cocked their heads slightly towards them when Kara had spoken.

"Teacher hearing?" This time it was Jacks turn to voice the question that neither of them really wanted to voice.

"Teacher hearing." Kara agreed.

Neither Jack nor Kara had been present at the first meeting of President Roslin and Dr Weir; rumour had it that once the all of the official business had been taken care of the two women had retreated to a corner for some 'un-official' chatting. Daniel had reported that it got quite heated at one stage; apparently the topic of human rights had come up, and although they had agreed in theory on both the Earth and Colonial's ideas of what human rights should entail it seemed there had been some vehement disagreeing on the situational and practical applications.

Jack is scared to ask exactly who, had said what, but it looked like they had gotten past that and were now in a rather intense discussion on woman's rights. Apparently Earth was a good 50 or 60 years behind the Colonies in this respect, along with many other aspects, apparently the IOA was salivating over getting their hands on the FTL technology and had actually had the gall to see if was possible to get their hands on a human model Cylon.

Elizabeth had already informed him that she wouldn't even be presenting that particular request to President Roslin and that she was perfectly capable of lying to the IOA and telling them their request had been denied by the Colonials.

In the background Daniel had to suppress an audible groan at Jack and Starbuck's obvious inability to be subtle and diplomatic. Although deep down Daniel knew it wasn't so much an inability as unwillingness, especially on Jacks part.

Several days past and the talks continued, Daniel suspected that President Roslin and Dr Weir could have had everything sensibly dealt with in the first day if they had just been left alone, but unfortunately every single Quorum member had to have their say and there were a few other Earth representatives who were making things difficult for all involved.

---------

Elizabeth sat down in what had been deemed as their office, the talks had been cancelled for the afternoon due to emergency on the Gemenon Traveller that required Laura's immediate attention. Elizabeth strongly suspected that the Gemenese Quorum representative was playing games and trying to stall the talks, Sarah Porter had made no bones about the fact that she wanted nothing to do with the people from Earth since finding out that the 13th tribe had never actually made it there.

The table was covered in various bit of paper, ranging from her notes taken during the talks to reports on the Colonial Military structure submitted by Admiral Adama. Daniel was attempting to help her but mostly he was reading through the scrolls of Pythia answering whatever random question Elizabeth asked.

Several had hours passed much like this with the rest of the team coming and going from various places throughout the ship, but there was one question Elizabeth asked that Daniel had been puzzling on for many weeks now.

"Have you looked at their Pantheon of Deities?"

He looked up at her and squinted slightly "Yes, and no I have no idea why they are so similar."

"But you have a theory?" Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest waiting for him to speak.

"Sort of, yes the Colonial Pantheon is similar to our Greek Mythology and the Gods of Olympus, there are some vast differences which can be explained by evolution as a culture but there are also startling similarities. That's not really what I'm having trouble working out, it's the timing." 

"What do you mean the timing?"

"It doesn't work, from what Thor told us the 13th Colony entered this area of space just over 3000 years ago and they never actually made it to Earth. Even if they had the Olympians were already an established Pantheon of Gods here on Earth so it's impossible that we were influenced by them. The same holds true for the opposite according to all Admiral Adama's history books, the only reference I have for them at the moment, they've been worshiping the Olympians for well over 4000 years which means even if a group managed to make it through to Earth and leave to return to the Colonies it's to late for them to have been influenced by us."

"So you're wondering if there was a third party involved in this, interfering by setting themselves up to be worshipped as Gods?" Elizabeth asked.

Daniel nodded "Then the question really becomes, who?"

They dropped back into silence.

Not long later both Elizabeth and Daniel jumped in shock when the emergency alarm sounded throughout the ship.

---------

The alert Vipers had been launched and the fleet started to jump to the emergency co-ordinates.

Bill kept his eyes on DRADIS watching as the various ships in the Fleet disappeared; through the com he could hear the chatter of the pilots as they engaged the Raiders.

Though he was listening to them one particular voice caught his attention.

"This is Starbuck in Raptor 161, I have the President on board, we'll meet you on the other side."

He kept his eyes on DRADIS this time focussing on the dot that was Raptor 161 as Dee confirmed receipt of the message, 25 seconds later it disappeared.

Several minutes passed before Dee's voice rang out over the general cacophony.

"All Civilian ships are away, Vipers are on their way home."

The Vipers landed and Galactica jumped.

---------

Laura sat in the back of the Raptor in silence, it wasn't the first time she had between ships when the Cylons appeared and she doubted it would be the last so she simply sat there and let the pilot – in this case Starbuck – do their job.

Laura heard Starbuck advise Galactica who was on the Raptor and Galactica's confirmation.

She could feel the change of vibrations on the ship as the FTL drive spun up. Then there was heat and shaking she recognised as the craft was hit by something. Starbuck yelled but Laura could not make out the words. Then the world became disjointed and they jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

And jumped.

Then everything went black.

---------

"Sir" Dee called out as the Universe was put back into its proper place "All Colonial ships except…" she trailed off unable to continue.

"Except who Lieutenant" Saul growled from his left, Bills stomach sank. They had lost someone and he dreaded to think who it was.

"Raptor 161, is not answering any hails" Everyone's eyes shot up to DRADIS.

Raptor 161 was no where to be seen.

"I want every ship in the fleet checked" Bill barked without hesitation "Triple check to see if the Presidents Raptor has docked with anyone." His fists clenched.

This was not happening.

---------

She could vaguely make out someone moaning. It was far off in the distance though, either that or her ears had been stuffed with cotton without her permission.

Laura cracked her eyes open, from her angle she could just make out the view port and Starbucks left leg. Pushing herself off the floor she made her way to the front of the ship and was met by the terrifying sight of empty space.

Where was the fleet?

Reaching out a shaky hand Laura grasped Kara's shoulder and shook her. A light moan was the only response she received. Turning around she saw that her security team were lying in various places throughout the small ship. One by one she checked them all, two were dead the third seemed to be simply unconscious.

Another moan from the pilots seat turned her attention back to Starbuck, making her way back up to the front of the ship this time she was greeted by wide yet groggy brown eyes.

---------

"I don't care!" Bill didn't care how desperate he sounded. The President of the Colonies was not going to be lost on his watch. "We check them all. Let me know when you have more information."

He left Lieutenant Gaeta standing there knowing that the task was impossible but he had seen impossible beaten more than once in his time. His people were phenomenally good at achieving whatever goal was set before them. 

Even the impossible, but in the meantime he needed to inform the Vice-President that the President was missing.

---------

They were screwed, both of them remembered the Raptor jumping multiple times before they had lost consciousness and they had no idea if they had kept jumping afterwards or how many times they'd jumped all together. DRADIS was not showing anything at all, no Colonial or Cylon transponders and Starbuck had no idea where they had ended up. To top is all off their FTL drive was completely blown; it wasn't even hiccupping let alone spinning up.

DRADIS beeped.

A gasp escaped Starbucks mouth as a strange looking ship loomed into their view.

They were so very very screwed.

**End Chapter 5**


	6. Chapter 6

**Begin Chapter 6.**

As the wormhole snapped shut behind him Ronan took in the surrounding trees, he was always sent into a state of hyper-alertness as he exited the gate, no matter where he was arriving. Not because of the gate travel per-say but merely the target they presented stepping out of the gate, he hated being vulnerable to attack.

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a slight movement in the trees, he knew there was definitely something there as Teyla stiffened at the same time he did. Reacting to his team mates Sheppard was immediately on alert for something, anything. He had learned very quickly not to ignore these two, when they said something was there then something was there.

Whatever was out there it was stealthy, and it didn't want to be found.

"What's going on guys?" Sheppard muttered out of the corner of his mouth while simultaneously elbowing Rodney in the ribs in an attempt to get the scientist to be quiet for a few moments.

"There's something in the trees" Ronan didn't take his eyes off the surrounding greenery, trying to spot any other movement.

"Two something's" Teyla corrected him; her sharp eye's catching movement about 50 meters away from what had originally caught their attention.

The trees rustled again, it seemed that whatever it was had given up on being stealthy, from the shadows a lithe form detached itself and moved forward slightly peering intently at the group gathered at the gate. Three weapons were immediately raised and pointed at the woman; Ronan's however went back into its holster as the woman got closer.

"Starbuck?" his voice was filled with incredulity.

"Ronan?" her face broke into a grin as she ran the last few steps and they enveloped each other in a bone crushing hug.

Fifty meters down the tree line the bushes rustled again, this time an older woman stepped out and sauntered over to join the group, her face was impassive but joy shined through in her eyes as she took in the sight of the younger man.

"Hello Ronan, nice to know you're still alive." She let out a small squeak as he released Starbuck and lifted her off the ground in joy not caring that she wasn't usually as tactile as the younger woman. "Are you going to introduce us to your friends?" She looked at the other three expectantly.

"Starbuck and Pythia, this is my team Colonel John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan and Dr Rodney McKay." He turned back to the two women "Everyone this is Starbuck and Pythia, they're Runners, are you two still tracked and how long have you been on this planet?"

"Yes and about three hours, we were just about to bunk down for some shut eye when you turned up." Starbuck answered for the two of them.

"Do you think Beckett would mind taking out another couple of trackers?" He asked Sheppard. The two women's jaws dropped in shock as they processed Ronan's question, having the trackers removed would be a dream come true for them, that and if they could find a way home unfortunately they didn't quite know where home was these days and the one address that could lead them to it wouldn't work on any gate they had tried.

"Teyla, dial home and inform command that we've found a couple of Runner's. Find out if Beckett wants to come here or if he wants them brought to the infirmary."

As Teyla turned to dial back to Atlantis John looked back at the Satedan.

"So how did you meet these two lovely ladies?"

"It was… Two years ago" Starbuck looked at Pythia for confirmation "Two and a half" Pythia corrected, she'd always been the better of the two at keeping track of time and events.

"Sounds about right" Ronan agreed "I gate to this planet thinking it'll be at least a day before the Wraith catch up to me. Unfortunately there are already Wraith crawling all over the place looking for these two, I took a stunner blast for Starbuck here, fell off a small cliff and broke my leg. She hauls me up and drags me back to the gate just as Pythia comes running out of the brush, they dial up and the three of us make it through just as the Wraith break the tree line." 

"We set his leg," Pythia continued the story "and the three of us stuck together until Ronan's leg healed well enough to make it on his own again. We talked about sticking together but with three trackers we were too easy to find, so we split after about three months." This time the smile broke through and encompassed her entire face. They had despaired for his life when they had first parted ways, but she was too pragmatic to allow them to stay together for any longer than they already had. While there was an aspect of safety in numbers, in this particular case you were better of not putting anyone else in anymore danger than they were already in.

By this time Teyla had finished her conversation over the radio and turned back to the rest of the team. "Dr Beckett will be here in a Jumper momentarily, they do not want active tracking devises brought back to the city, he will remove them here on the planet and then we will head back to base. May I ask how long you have been on the run for?"

"Nearly four years." Pythia replied distractedly and flinched slightly as the wormhole shut down and almost immediately fired back up with an incoming wormhole, instinct dictated that she run for the tree line and she could see that Starbuck was ready to do the same but seeing Ronan standing there unfazed by the events calmed her a little. She gasped as a small ship came flying through the gate of similar size to a Raptor, but more elongated and streamlined she knew the first thought going through Starbucks head would be 'I have got to get me one of those', a quick glance at the younger woman confirmed that.

The ship settled about 10 meters from where they stood and the back dropped open revealing a man in his mid to late 30's looking like he'd rather be anywhere else.

"Starbuck and Pythia, this Dr Carson Beckett, he took the tracker out of my back. He's the best Doc in the galaxy." The man blushed at Ronan's high praise.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ladies despite the circumstances; anyway straight to it who wants to go first?"

Starbuck immediately stepped forward, despite the time that had past and the circumstances her military training and decorum dictated that she go first to make sure that it wouldn't be harmful to her companion (President) in any way.

"Starbuck?" Pythia started.

"No" Starbuck didn't let her finish "He doesn't go near you until we know it's safe. I took an oath and that means I go first." She looked at Ronan "Anything happens to me, you get her to safety, and if your new friends can find a way to dial that address then you get her there no matter what. I'm just a pilot…" her voice cracked slightly "She's more…"

Before either Ronan or Pythia could say anything in response she marched up the ramp of the Jumper, took her shirt and bra off, all thoughts of modesty being beaten out of her by various events over the last 8 years, and lay face down on the make shift gurney.

"You can numb me up Doc, but don't even think about knocking me out!" Her command was muffled but the tone of voice got through loud and clear.

Carson took a nervous breath before running the scanner over her back to locate the tracker; he was not at all surprised that the request to remain conscious and had in fact been prepared for it this time.

Pythia watched the whole process closely, her weapon gripped tightly in her hand ready to be used at a moments notice. She hated the thing, hated what it stood for and what it meant that she had become so comfortable with it that it was now an extension of her arm, but like everything else her abhorrence to violence had been stripped away by the necessity of survival. The past three plus years on the run with Starbuck, trying to out think and out manoeuvre the Wraith had forced her to embrace some of the things she had fought so hard to put a stop to and held onto with everything she had while on the run from the Cylons and trapped on New Caprica but everything had been slowly stripped away. Laura had disappeared the moment the Doctor had confirmed the Breast cancer diagnosis back on Caprica, Secretary Roslin had died in the Holocaust; President Roslin was still lying on that Wraith ship waiting for the Admiral to rescue her as they were tortured, as life had been given and taken so many times in those weeks. Starbuck was wrong, she wasn't more, she used to hold the office of someone important but Laura had never been comfortable with the idea of being more, she took it on because there was no one else to, because someone had to. Not any longer, everything she had been in the past was gone. Now she was just a runner, known only as Pythia because that was all she had left.

Several hours passed and she didn't take her eyes off Starbuck, who as requested had not been knocked unconscious, they had locked eyes early on in the proceedings and neither had moved.

Finally Carson tied off the last stitch in Starbucks back and dressed the wound allowing Pythia to relax and watch as Ronan took the bloody tracker and ground it into the dirt with his heel until it cracked, splintered and fell to pieces in front of their eyes.

She nearly cried, but she didn't.

All too soon it was her turn and she took Starbuck's place on the gurney. Without having to be told Carson gave her an anaesthetic to numb the pain but one that wouldn't knock her out.

She didn't remember much of the operation, the pressure of the scalpel as it cut into her back, the pull as the device was removed and she was stitched up. Starbucks heavy gaze as she watched tense and ready to move if it looked like they were in danger.

And then finally Carson announced that it was done and she was free of the cursed thing.

A weight was lifted from her body and soul, her eyes grew heavy as the warmth of Ronan and Starbuck who sat on either side of her permeated her entire being, even not knowing who she supposedly was Ronan protected her. She didn't really notice when the rest of the team joined them in the Jumper, nor did she notice when they went through the gate.

Other than the sensation of being comfortable for the first time in recent memory the first thing she truly took notice of since laying down on the gurney was another painfully familiar voice uttering painfully familiar titles. It was a voice that spoke of happier times she had nearly forgotten.

"President Roslin? Captain Thrace?"

Pythia looked up at Elizabeth Weir, wondering if she had finally gone mad, or if everything was finally going to be ok.

She figured that she wasn't going mad due the relieved sob Starbuck let out.

"Do you know these people Elizabeth?" Rodney had looked up from his Laptop at Elizabeth's astonished exclamation but she didn't answer him instead focusing all her attention on the two Colonial women who had disappeared and were presumed dead not long after she took over Stargate command and had brokered a treaty between Earth and the Colonials.

"Frak me" was all Starbuck could manage to say, and Laura quite agreed with the sentiment but settled for grinning foolishly at their good fortune not only to run into Ronan but discover that among his allies were in fact those that could possibly return them to their family.

"Excuse me…" Carson interrupted before anything else could be said "but I want to get these two lovely ladies to the infirmary, introduction and or friendly chats can take place after I've got them checked out properly and settled."

Elizabeth nodded dumbly, still not quite sure what to say so settled for "I'll be down soon, I think there's some people back in the Milky Way that are going to be very happy to hear that you two are alive."

This time Laura did cry.

General Hank Landry was confused, in a job like his he should be used to the feeling by now and he was to a degree but just because he got used to it, it did not necessarily mean that he liked the feeling.

The cause of the confusion wasn't the usual one; generally Hank could count on Elizabeth Weir to be the calm in the storm of insanity that was Stargate Operations but not today.

30 minutes ago the earth gate had fired up long enough for Atlantis' GDO to be recognised and a short video message sent through. The contents of the message puzzled him so much so that as suggested by Dr Weir he resorted to calling Daniel Jackson to hopefully clear some things up for him.

The two of them sat in his office as he restarted the message for Daniel.

"_General, I need you to get in touch with one of Earths allies, known as the Colonies of Kobol, specifically the head of their Military, Admiral William Adama or his son Commander Lee Adama. Tell them that we've found Pythia and Starbuck they are alive and we'll send them through to Earth as soon as Dr Beckett clears them medically. If they don't want to wait I would recommend you allow the Admiral to come to Atlantis, Dr Jackson can explain why this is so important. Weir Out"_

"So Dr Jackson, can you please explain to me what is so important about 'Pythia' and 'Starbuck' and why Dr Weir would be willing to allow one of our admittedly more trustworthy allies, access to the Atlantis base?"

Daniel closed his eyes and thought back to the first day he had met Laura Roslin and Kara Thrace, a myriad of scenes passed through his mind the worst being the day they had disappeared. Daniel had seen many things in his life but the absolute devastation that overtook the Colonial Fleet when they lost their President and best Pilot had been one of the worst.

"You were told about the ex-President and Pilot that went missing just before the Cylons were defeated and the Colonials settled on New Kobol?" at Hanks nod Daniel continued "the Pilots call sign was Starbuck and Pythia was the name of a Prophet who foresaw the Holocaust and the events that followed, she said that there would be a leader dying of a wasting disease who would lead them to a new home, Laura Roslin had cancer when the Colonies were destroyed and many see her as the re-incarnation of Pythia. If they have been found then…" Daniel trailed off trying to find the words "I'm not sure about the population at large but for Admiral Adama, President Roslin was his best friend, they depended on each other for a lot and I would go as far as to say they loved each other deeply, whether it was simply platonic or more I don't know, and he loves Kara like a daughter, she was actually engaged to one of his sons before the attack. Finding these two will mean the world to him."

Elizabeth couldn't wait any longer, she had quickly recorded a message for General Landry and sent it through and then managed to waste another half an hour on mindless paperwork before heading down to the infirmary. Carson had told her that he would be in touch when their guests were settled but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"Elizabeth" Carson grinned at her as she wandered through the main doors "I was just about to call you." He lead her into his office before continuing "They're about as healthy as Ronan was when he first joined us, in other words they're malnourished and have a slew of old injuries that have never quite healed properly due to constantly moving, but for two women in their mid-30's and mid-40's they're as healthy as can be expected."

"Did you say mid-40's" Elizabeth looked at him confused.

"Aye, I'd estimate Pythia to be in her mid-40's I think," he paused for a moment frowning slightly "her body chemistry is slightly different to both ours and Starbucks so I can't be sure, also there are indications she's been fed upon numerous times. Why?"

"Because when I met Laura Roslin she was in her 50's"

"Well we know the Wraith can give back life as well as take it." He was worried about the implications of the Wraith returning life to the woman.

"The question then becomes why would they do that for her?" They dropped into silence momentarily "Can I see them"

He nodded and led her back out into the main part of the infirmary.

"Hopefully they're sleeping, Ronan showed up just before you did" he pointed to a curtained off area of the infirmary "I figured they might like some privacy."

"Thanks Carson"

Sliding the curtain open just enough to let herself through Elizabeth expected to be met with the sight of two sleeping women, not two empty beds and Ronan sitting on the floor opposite her. She was just about to call Carson in a panic when a light snore caught her ears. Quietly making her way around the beds there in the corner the two of them were curled up asleep, shoulder to shoulder backs to the wall, protecting each other while trying to be as comfortable as possible. Ronan sitting a few feet away blocking anyone from reaching them, the look on his face told her he wasn't going to be moving anytime soon and if they trusted him enough to sleep in his presence then she wasn't going to even attempt to get him to move. She caught his eye and quirked an eyebrow at him hoping for an explanation.

"It took me nearly a month before I was comfortable in a bed." He rumbled quietly "You get used to sleeping anywhere that is quiet and relatively secure, they'll get used to a bed again eventually."

Elizabeth nodded and decided to leave things as they were for now. Over the last few years she had been reminded constantly about how lucky she was, she had never been in their position before; she would never know what it was like to truly fear for your life.

She suspected it would be a long time before Laura and Kara were comfortable being with anyone but each other and wasn't sure whether to look forward to their reunion with the Adama's or not.

"Dr Jackson, Colonel Carter." Bill held out his hand smiling at the two of them tiredly "We weren't expecting anyone from Earth for a few more weeks. What can I do for you?"

Daniel and Sam looked at each other trying to hold back the grins "Actually we have some news. A few hours ago Elizabeth Weir sent us a message from the Pegasus Galaxy," while the Colonials didn't know all the details of the expedition they knew it existed. "One of their teams helped out two of what are known as Runners. They're people with tracking devices surgically inserted into their bodies and hunted for sport. Their Doctor took the trackers out and brought them back to the city." Despite the impassiveness of his face Daniel could tell that the Admiral was getting impatient. "Starbuck and President Roslin are alive, Elizabeth recognised them the moment she saw them."

"Laura and Kara… are alive?" Bill whispered hoping he hadn't been hearing things.

"I spoke to Elizabeth not an hour ago. They're alive, and physically they're going to be fine. Carson wants to keep them in the infirmary for awhile, make sure everything is ok and give them a chance to rest. Elizabeth was wondering if you'd like to come and see for yourself and General Landry has said you are free to use Earths gate if you wish."

It had taken Bill just over an hour to get everything and everyone organised. Without telling them why he had dragged Lee and Tory from their duties and was taking them with him to Earth and then onto Atlantis.

"I'll explain later, pack a bag we'll be gone about a week" Was all he said. While the message he sent to President Zarek had little more information in it.

_I've had to go to Earth, taken Lee and Tory Foster with me. Will explain all when we get back._

Leaving the President rather confused as to what would drag both the Adama men and Tory away.

Bill felt like he hadn't even blinked between the time Daniel told him they were alive and when he stepped through the gate and into Atlantis with two extremely confused companions.

Elizabeth was standing there waiting for him, after the habitual greetings Lee finally got sick of waiting to be given an explanation.

"With all due respect Admiral are you going to explain what we're doing here?"

"You didn't tell them?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know how." He admitted.

She nodded in understanding and turned to Teyla "Admiral William Adama this is Teyla Emmagan one of our Pegasus allies." They nodded to each other politely "Teyla could you please take the Admiral down to Ronan and our other guests while I explain the situation to Ms Foster and the Commander."

"Of course, Admiral this way please."

"Ms Foster, Commander Adama if you'll follow me I'll explain everything." Elizabeth led them up towards the conference room.

Bill followed Teyla silently through the halls of Atlantis, his mind spinning, after nearly four years they had all given up hope. Laura and Kara were gone, never to be found. The civilians and military alike had mourned for a long time, Tom Zarek had refused to accept the office of President for nearly a year, he had held out hope for so long and now, when and how they least expected it they had been found.

They came through the double doors of the infirmary and Teyla led him to a quiet curtained off corner, she gave him a small smile and stepped back allowing him to enter when he was ready.

Taking a deep breath he pushed the curtain aside and stepped through. The bed closest to him was empty but the second bed contained two bodies, lying back to back seemingly sound asleep, were the two most important women in his life. Stepping around the empty bed he didn't notice as his bag slipped out of his fingers and dropped to the floor with an audible thump, he watched fascinated as Kara's eyes flew open and darted around the room taking in her surroundings but the rest of her body did not move.

Finally her gaze settled on him, she squinted and then blinked repeatedly as though she didn't believe what she was seeing. She finally moved to reach behind her and poke her companion in the thigh repeatedly until the other woman whispered so quietly that Bill almost didn't even hear it.

"What?"

"Tell me I'm not seeing things!"

Laura rolled over in the bed without dislodging either of them (which some part of Bills brain thought was quite a feat as they were not large beds by any measure – the same part of his brain noticed that she looked nearly fifteen years younger than the last time he had seen her but the rest of him dismissed that for now) and looked over Kara's shoulder. None of them moved for a few moments until Laura murmured in Kara's ear.

"I don't think you're seeing things, unless we've started having joint hallucinations again."

Weeks later that comment will come back to him, he will ask about it and be told a part of their story they left out of the original telling. He will wish he'd never asked.

"No" Ronan piped up from his spot by the bed "He's there, I don't know who he is but he's there" Convincing the two of them to actually use the beds had been hard enough so he hadn't actually bothered to try and separate them.

Kara nodded slowly digesting Laura and Ronan's confirmation, before launching herself out of bed into Bill's arms, unfortunately dislodging Laura who was thrown off the other side of the bed with an undignified yelp. Pulling her self off the floor she found the two of them standing there, Bill had wrapped his arms around Kara who was sobbing into his shoulder. Bringing a hand up to her mouth she suppressed her own sob.

All of a sudden the curtain flew open and Lee Adama came running in without thinking about it he headed straight for Laura and pulled her into his arms holding her as tightly as he could, and while the pressure on where the tracker had been taken out of her back was painful she didn't care. Right behind him was Tory who didn't even wait for Lee to release her but simply wrapped her arms around Laura from behind.

"You're alive" Lee whispered "Thank the Gods your alive."

The following minutes were full of muted sobs and murmured prayers of gratefulness as Laura and Kara were passed between Bill, Lee and Tory.

Ronan watched the whole scene with a wistfulness that he would never admit to anyone. He missed his home and his people with a yearning that was a hole in his heart, while Atlantis was his home now and its people his family there was still something missing. The familiarity of shared history, of home, and of family, he would never get that back and though he would never admit it, he was jealous of Pythia and Starbuck. Jealous of the scene that was playing out before him, jealous of the way the Pythia wrapped her arms around the older man's neck while his came around her waist fitting them together. He used to fit that way with Melena but there would be no reunion like that for them, no feeling of rightness in the world when you were held by someone you loved.

He watched silently as Pythia pulled back just enough to study the man's face, a hand unwrapped itself from his neck and long fingers traced a pattern over his face, eyebrows, cheek bone, upper and lower lips up his jaw and to his ear. Small details forgotten now remembered. A tear slowly made its way down her cheek and he reached up to wipe it away.

"You've changed." his voice was rough. The lines around her eyes and mouth had smoothed out, skin had re-tightened but there was hardness behind her eyes that had never been there before. He could feel the muscles in her back coiled tightly, like she was ready to run and fight at a moments notice.

"It's been a long time Bill, and a lot has happened."

"Yes it has…" He pulled her back towards her and just held on.

**End Chapter 6**


	7. Chapter 7

Other than the Epilogue, this is the last chapter.

To everyone who has read and reviewed and giant thank you; I didn't expect this good a reception to a story that I am pretty sure I'm insane for writing.

**Begin Chapter 7**

Despite the three days that had past Laura and Kara had not yet spoken about the events that occurred while they had been missing, they were more interested in hearing about the fleet and how the Cylons had been defeated (they were very impressed when told that Bill had managed to goad them into an all out shooting war with the Goa'uld, they hadn't been seen or heard from since Anubis destroyed most of their Basestars and two resurrection ships). Carson was expecting to release them late that afternoon and Bill was hoping that when they were finally alone he would get to hear the whole story. He knew that both of them were un-comfortable in the infirmary and were still having trouble accepting their new circumstances.

When they insisted on leaving Atlantis as soon as Carson cleared them he was not surprised and simply promised Elizabeth that he would send her a report as soon as he could, both of them knowing that the two women concerned would not talk until they were ready. Kara would buck any attempt to force her to do something she didn't want to by either getting extremely violent or running away, while Laura would simply withdraw, enveloping herself in silence and darkness, so they left them knowing that they would speak when ready, they always did.

So the Colonials left Atlantis as quietly and as mysteriously as they arrived.

To the population at large no explanation was given as to who the two runners really were and the additional three that were allowed into Atlantis once their true identities were discovered, but those in senior commend had a better idea. They were allies of Earth, two of their most important citizens, but to Ronan they were friends who knew exactly what he had been through. The pain and the struggle to simply survive, and the slap in that face when you were told it was over and you could start living again. Elizabeth knew where they had come from and where they had been; she worried over their future after the struggle Ronan had gone through while trying to settle into Atlantis, she had informed Bill as much. There had been no expectations on Ronan, none of them had known him before but on New Kobol there would be people who expected Kara and Laura to walk back into their lives. Those who would not understand the fundamental changes that had taken place, therefore both women had left with the knowledge that they would always be welcome in Atlantis.

It comforted Bill to know that should they find it to hard too live on New Kobol they would have a place to come, to be free in a way that they may never be afforded while living among the Colonies. He could only pray that the offer would never need to be taken up on.

Stepping through the gate and onto Earth was a surreal experience for them, Laura and Kara had never been there before and were extremely surprised to be surrounded by concrete and glass and told that they were several hundred feet underground. Standing at the bottom of the ramp waiting for them were four very familiar faces, along with three not so familiar.

When he had heard the news that they were alive Jack O'Neill's first thought was Daniel had been sharing his lucky survival pills with them, but when he got his first glance at them he swore under his breath, gone were the two women he had gotten to know quite well and considered friends, women he had mourned when their Raptor disappeared.

The two women walking down the ramp towards him were husks. He could still see bits and pieces of the women he knew, Starbucks confident swagger and the way Laura could still appraise an entire room and it's intentions with a mere glance but something had been stripped away from them and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Cutting through any official BS that Hank or Daniel might put out he strode towards them grinning.

"Laura, Kara, welcome to Earth."

Smirk firmly in place Kara looked around the room "It's smaller than I expected, but you know a splash of paint, some curtains, it'll feel like home soon enough."

Jack barked out a short laugh, there was the irrepressible Starbuck he knew and loved, and in the background someone muttered.

"Well damn, it's a female General O'Neill." Jack didn't even bother to turn and glare at Cameron Mitchell.

"General?" Laura asked surprised, as muffled sniggers erupted from several of the others throughout the gate room "Should I offer my condolences or congratulations?"

"Depends on the day really, today I think congratulations are in order."

There was the glint he was looking for, the smile that said you're sitting on my last nerve but I'll never let you see how much you're getting to me and I honestly do give a damn about what you're saying.

"I relayed your message to New Kobol Admiral." Jack turned to Bill "Athena is going to meet you at your beta sight with a Raptor. She'll dial up and let us know when she's ready for you, President Zarek isn't too happy about being left in the dark about all of this. Good luck"

Kara and Laura both turned to Bill with questioning looks on their faces.

"Our Gate is guarded constantly and we also have our own version of an iris, I thought it would be better if we snuck you through in a Raptor and give a few select people, including the President, a chance too find out before the population at large. Also a Raptor won't fit into the Gate Room here on Earth."

Neither of them had been in a Raptor for a very long time, and neither of them was looking forward to getting back into one.

Laura was well aware that everyone wanted to know what had happened to them and they were all walking eggshells around herself and Kara, so when they ended up in Stargate Commands briefing room, after a mandatory check up in the infirmary, by unspoken agreement they started at the beginning.

"Just before we jumped out Raptor was hit, the FTL drive malfunctioned" Kara started.

_DRADIS was not showing anything at all, no Colonial or Cylon transponders and Starbuck had no idea where they had ended up. To top is all off their FTL drive was completely blown; it wasn't even hiccupping let alone spinning up._

_DRADIS beeped._

_A gasp escaped Starbucks mouth as a strange looking ship loomed into their view._

"_Buckle in!" Starbuck yelled as smaller fighters started to head towards them._

_This was not good._

_It became apparent very quickly that speed wise there was no way she could keep running from them her only hope was to out manoeuvre them and find somewhere to hide._

_Damn she wished that she was in her Viper right now, at least then she would be able to shoot them._

_Finally something else appeared on DRADIS turning towards it Kara saw a planet in the distance. That she could use. Manoeuvring just enough to keep from being hit by whatever they were being shot at with she headed directly for the planet._

_If she could get them there they might be able to hide in the lower atmosphere long enough to work out a real plan._

_If the planet had breathable air they could conceivably land and hide._

_If they didn't get shot out of the sky in the meantime._

_Lady luck seemed to be on their side for the first time all day, they made it to the planet in one piece and the planet had breathable air._

"_I'm going to take us down to the surface" she yelled at Laura over her shoulder "hopefully we can find somewhere to hide."_

_Flying as low as she dared, Starbuck searched for somewhere they could hide when something impacted their rear left thrusters._

"_Frak"_

_With all her piloting skills Starbuck managed to keep them from hitting the ground without exploding and before Laura even had a chance to fully comprehend what was happening Kara had hauled her and the barely conscious security guard and dragged them out of the Raptor and they ran for the tree line._

_Then the world disappeared in a flash of white light._

"We never managed to work out exactly how much time past before we woke up cocooned on the Hive ship. We think it was somewhere around a week and we never found out what happened to Michaels, we assume he was cocooned and fed on."

'_Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic' the mantra Kara had been repeating to herself since waking and finding she couldn't move wasn't really working but there was nothing else she could do. A startled gasp from her left drew her attention away from trying not to panic, craning her neck to the side trying to catch a glimpse of whoever it was but it was useless she couldn't quite get her head around enough._

"_Starbuck?" a slightly hysterical whisper reached her ears._

"_Ma… Pythia?" really as code names went it wasn't the best and she just hoped that The President would play along._

"_Thank the Gods."_

_Further talk was cut off by the ominous sounds of booted feet heading towards them._

_What came into sight was like nothing she had ever seen before. Pale greenish white skin, ugly as all hell and from what she could deduce three males and one female, that is if they even had male and female._

_There was an odd kind of slurping sound from the same direction that Laura's voice had come from and then the sound of a body hitting the floor. Two of the males moved just out of her line of sight momentarily and when they returned Laura was propped up in between them._

_What she assumed was the female reached up and ripped Laura's shirt open._

"_How do you work your ships?" it's sibilant hissing speech chilled Kara to the bone. She looked at Laura whose clear attentive gaze told her one thing._

'_Don't tell them anything. Protect the Fleet, that's an order.'_

"_Don't know what you're talking about." Kara regretted her flippant words immediately as a clawed hand slammed into Laura's chest and Kara was forced to watch her President age before her very eyes._

"It went on for days like that." Laura could not raise her eyes to meet anyone else's, so she studied the calluses on her palms and Kara had been unable to even speak during this part of their tale.

"They would ask questions they knew we wouldn't answer and feed on me, they wanted to know how our ships worked, where we came from etcetera. Once I got close enough to death they would drop me to the floor and just leave me lying there dying in front of Kara trying to break one of us. The time they waited would vary but they always came back and gave back the life they took. The last time they gave back more I don't know how much but from what Dr Beckett said it was somewhere around the 15 to 20 year mark."

She closed her eyes and leaned back in the comfortable leather chair, distantly she wondered if they would let her take it with her.

"After a while I guess they just got tired of it, they inserted the trackers, dumped us on a planet with a hand held stunner each and we ran."

"_Starbuck don't you dare even think about it, you are not playing bait. We both live or we both die, simple as that."_

"When we finally found the Stargate the first address we tried was Earths, Daniel had showed me the symbols, but it would never connect. We tried from every gate we found, it was the first thing we did. No matter how many planets we went to or how much distance we managed to put between us and them they always found us and there were times we nearly didn't get away."

"_Come on we're nearly at the gate. Wake up Pythia, that's an order! You will not die, that's an order too."_

"We'd been on the run for just over a year when we met Ronan."

"_I'm Starbuck, she's Pythia. Whatever you want, you don't want to be around us. The Wraith will find us they always do, we move fast and we don't stop. Wherever home is for you we'll get you there and then be on our way."_

"_I don't have a home. I'm a Runner, just like you two."_

"The one day we'd just arrived at a planet and were about to try and get some rest when the gate activated"

"_Frak, they shouldn't have found us yet."_

"It was Ronan and his team, and well you know the rest."

The silence that descended over the room was brought to an abrupt halt as the incoming wormhole klaxons sounded throughout the base.

Several minutes later the wormhole shut down and Walter Harriman entered the room.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Athena is on P6C873, ready whenever you are."

"Thank you Sergeant" Jack dismissed him. Most of those in the room got to their feet, knowing that they were not going to get anything else out of Laura and Kara today, even if Athena hadn't turned up when she did, they were done talking.

The only person to remain seated was Laura who was still leaning back with her eyes closed. To the untrained eye she looked almost asleep but most of the room were not untrained. She was tense and highly uncomfortable being in a room with this many people but she really did like this chair.

"You can keep the chair if you're really that attached to it" Jack said hoping to get a reaction from her. Most of the room gaped at him.

Laura cracked an eye open, and glared half-heartedly at Jack, but with a non-committal grunt she pushed herself out of the chair and left the room.

"Thankyou for your hospitality Jack, you should come for a visit in a couple of weeks. Hopefully…" Bill trailed off, his eyes fixed on the doorway Laura and Kara had left through.

"Yeah." Jack clapped him on the shoulder and tried to grin reassuringly but he was well aware that Bill wasn't buying it.

Down in the gate room Kara looked at Laura,

"Are you feeling…? I don't know, buzzed?"

"Like I really need to do something?" Laura agreed.

She looked at Lee "Captain Apollo, would you mind carrying my pack through the gate for me?" She smiled sweetly.

"Of course Mad… Laura." He was still having trouble calling her by her given name but she refused to answer to anything else.

"Run?" Kara's face lit up at the thought of finally expending the energy that had been coursing through her for the past few days. She wasn't used to being still for so long.

"Run" Laura agreed.

The second the whoosh of the gate settled back into the event horizon Laura and Kara bolted through the gate.

---a---a---

When the gate opened Athena was expecting the Admiral, Lee and Tory to step through, they would get on the Raptor and go home. Although she still wasn't sure why she was here, and why they didn't just gate directly from Earth.

What she wasn't expecting was for two figures to come though the gate at a dead run. As soon as they cleared the even horizon the two figures split and headed for the tree line on slightly different vectors.

If she didn't know better, Athena would swear that one of them was Starbuck.

Just as she was drawing her weapon Commander Adama appeared through the gate and she relaxed slightly but didn't put her weapon away. There was a look on his face that she hadn't seen in years, not since Starbuck and President Roslin disappeared, that mixture of utter frustration and true affection that only Starbuck managed to bring out in him.

She watched intrigued as he shook his head in defeat and walked towards her. A minute later The Admiral and Tory stepped through, their worry immediately evident as the gate snapped shut behind them.

"They headed for the tree line." Lee called over to them "I'm not exactly sure why but…" he hesitated, not sure if the other two had noticed how keyed up Laura and Kara had been.

Bill nodded wondering if this was going to be the norm from now on. "From what Elizabeth told me about Ronan, they're going to have trouble for a while. I don't think that this will be the last time they do this."

"We wait?" Tory asked.

"We wait" Bill confirmed and the turned his attention to Athena who was looking more and more confused. "Thank you for coming to meet us Lieutenant. As you can see we're bringing some friends home with us." Bill paused, still not knowing how to explain the miraculous return of Laura and Kara; luckily Tory stepped in for him.

"Starbuck and President Roslin are alive." She stated without preamble. "They've been stuck in the Pegasus Galaxy trying to find a way back; Elizabeth Weir found them and called us."

Lee wondered if the look Athena had on her face was anything like the one he had sported when Elizabeth had told him the exact same thing.

Several minuted past with the four of them watching the tree line waiting for Laura and Kara to return from their impromptu run. They waited in silence each lost deep in their own thoughts especially Athena who despite her hatred for Laura Roslin had always had a grudging respect for how far she had been willing to go to protect the fleet. Surprisingly it had been a conversation with Saul Tigh that had given her pause.

"_Think of it this way. A decision had to be made; the Cylons wanted Hera, in fact they were willing to do anything to get her. They had already destroyed our homes and chased us halfway across the galaxy, she did what had to be done to protect the fleet and don't think she didn't pay for it or that she wouldn't do it again. Laura Roslin would've done anything for this fleet, to ensure its survival. There is nothing that you could've said or done to her that would be worse than New Caprica."_

It had been one of the few times she had witnessed Tigh perfectly sober, that and she knew that there was no love lost between Roslin and Tigh so for him to defend her made her stop and think.

Now Laura Roslin had been found again, Athena found herself feeling truly apathetic towards the woman. To much time had passed and too much had happened for her to care what happened to her, but Starbuck she had missed and Athena would be glad to have her friend back with them. Helo would be even gladder still.

Ten minutes after the Stargate closed down there was a disturbance in the forest where Laura and Kara had disappeared, causing the four others to immediately focus all their attention on it.

Lee had to stop himself from screaming when a low voice whispered, "Boo" right next to his ear.

Turning fast he drew his gun and pointed it directly at Kara who was somehow standing right next to him. About two feet from them Laura burst out laughing.

"You should see the looks on your faces." She managed to get out through the giggles.

"So, we ready to go?" Kara asked trying to keep her face straight.

Lee had never had anyone able to sneak up on him like that in the field, but then again from the stories he had been told about the Wraith you would have to be good to stay alive while on the run from them.

---a---a---

Tom Zarek was not happy.

He hated being in the dark, Admiral Adama was up to something and Tom wanted to know what it was. First there was the whole disappearing and kidnapping act he had pulled and the he didn't even bother to contact them himself but sent a message through Jack O'Neill. On top of that the Admiral had demanded, not asked, but demanded that when his Raptor landed the only ones to be present in the hanger were Saul Tigh and himself.

To top it all off Colonel Tigh was just as confused by all of this as Tom was, both of them had been hoping that the other knew something and were rather put out when they realised that they were as clueless as the other.

So here he was waiting in an empty hanger, the Raptor had just landed and Tom was nearly vibrating with anticipation over what the Admiral was about to reveal.

The Raptor door opened, inside there were two more people than he expected, although he couldn't make out whom they were he could just see their legs. Someone said something to the Admiral causing him to scowl and shake his head quite forcefully.

"Mr President" Bill started "My apologies for all the secrecy, I hope you'll understand once I explain."

Tom nodded, but remained silent. He was well used to Bill Adama and knew the older man would speak without Tom prompting him.

"We… I…" Was all he could stammer out before he was interrupted.

"For Fraks sake Bill," Tom and Saul both went pale as Laura Roslin pushed her way out of the Raptor.

"What Bill is trying to say is that Starbuck and I are alive."

"Subtle Laura, real subtle." Starbuck stood up next to her in the door of the Raptor.

"I thought we were going to let them down gently?" Lee quirked and eyebrow at Tory who shrugged in resignation, the changes in her former boss scared her. She'd never seen Laura Roslin so abrupt and tactless before, but then again Tory doubted anyone would come through something like this unchanged.

"What?" Laura and Kara continued talking over him "Bill was never going to get to the point; I thought I'd speed things up a bit. You know get out of this hanger bay before I hit 50… again"

This wasn't Laura Roslin, well not the Laura Roslin Tom knew, but it was. All he could do was stare at them, Tom opened and closed his mouth a few times, made the occasional vowel sound but other than that he stood there staring at them.

"Ten cubits says he passes out?" Starbuck raised her eyebrows at Laura.

"No bet," Laura scoffed "Although I'm hoping Colonel Tigh has enough to share with the whole class in that flask he's reaching for."

Saul bought the flask up to his lips and took a quick gulp before passing it over to Tom who took it without looking away from the two women standing at the door of the Raptor. Taking his own shot of the now patented 'Chiefs Brew', Tom then stepped forward and held the flask out to Laura, who smirked at him and took the offered drink.

"Ever the gentlemen aren't we Tom." Laura flashed him a grin as she passed the flask to Starbuck.

"Damn" the younger woman swore after swallowing "this stuffs nearly as good that drink we got on Leinia."

"I suppose" Tom finally found his voice "That I need to hold a press conference announcing that our President has returned."

"Not the President anymore Tom, that's your job now. I'm just Laura."

---a---a---

"_Will Laura Roslin be retaking office?"_

"_No, Ms Roslin has said that she would prefer to retire quietly."_

"_Why?"_

"_Given their ordeal, Ms Roslin and Captain Thrace feel that at this time they are not ready to step back into public life. They wish to have time to recover and reconnect with family and friends."_

"_Has there been any explanation of the physical changes in Laura Roslin."_

"_Yes."_

"_And that is?"_

"_I will not be commenting on that at this time, suffice it to say I have been informed of the circumstances surrounding the change and do not feel it is necessary for the population at large to know the entirety of the details."_

---a---a---

Bill and Lee were smothering them, and it was really grating on their nerves. Laura and Kara had become so used to relying on each other and being on their own that they had forgotten just how protective the Adama men were.

Not that Kara blamed them, but she just wished they would back off a bit and she could see it was getting on Laura's nerves. Laura had nowhere near the restraint that she'd had at her command four years ago. Now if something pissed her off everyone knew about it and Bill Adama was going to get shot if he didn't back off very soon.

So after a week of being kept practically prisoner by Bill and Lee the two of them decided they'd had enough.

Morning came and there was simply a note

_Gone camping, be back soon._

_Laura and Kara._

While Bill was having a mild panic attack Laura and Kara had slipped out of the city and into the surrounding mountains where there was no one staring at them, no one hovering over them and no one expecting them to be the exact same women as they had been when they went missing.

Halfway through the first day they came across a river and followed it further away from the city and higher into the mountains. Eventually the river split into two and they took the smaller of the forks, going deeper and deeper into the mountain range, some three days after leaving the city they found the source of the river in a small lake. Crystal clear and untouched by any human, most likely fed by the snow they could see still capping the higher mountain peaks.

They set their packs on the eastern bank, and went about exploring the surrounding area keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it could be dangerous but found nothing.

Late into the night they talked, of life, of death, of the changes both good and bad in their people and in themselves.

They talked of prophecies.

"And the dying leader shall not see earth." Kara quoted quietly.

"I guess that means I'm not their prophet after all. I'm not actually Pythia."

Kara mumbled something unintelligible and they dropped into silence which Laura broke a few minutes later when she started to chuckle.

"What?" Kara queried.

"Just remembering something Jack said to me when we first met them," she continued chuckling quietly "he said 'prophesies schmophesies, apparently they always come true but the bitch is in the details. Who know's what's gonna happen in the future, we're not the Earth you were looking forward so maybe there doesn't need to be a dying leader anymore.' He's smarter than most people think." Laura turned and looked at Kara.

"Just like someone else I know."

Kara snorted in amusement at the comparison.

They spent the night by the lake and as they watched the sunrise Kara pulled out two of the cigars Sam Carter had slipped her while on earth. Sitting there in the silence puffing away Laura whispered to herself.

"I'm gonna build a cabin right here."


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Nearly a year to the day after arriving on New Kobol the cabin was finally finished.

Laura and Kara had spent a week exploring the area surrounding the lake, before heading back out of the mountains.

When they arrived back in the city Bill had been absolutely livid at them and the fight that occurred had been audible to many, but they had finally made their point.

They were completely capable of looking after themselves and didn't need to be baby sat as proved by the four years they had survived on their own.

Gathering the supplies they needed to get started they had headed back up into the mountains to get a start on their cabin.

It was slow going at first, they were doing everything by hand and had to get an area big enough cleared before they could even think about laying a foundation.

Two months passed with just the two of them and the occasional trip back down into the city for supplies, mostly they lived off the land. Captured game and foraged berries and native fruits.

Then one day Saul Tigh stepped out of the brush, initially met with a gun to the head and then welcoming smiles.

"Got some R&R, thought you two might want a hand."

So for the next two weeks the three of them worked in a strange kind of harmony. In the past they had had their issues with each other, Saul had been hit by both of the women in the past, although he did admit to himself that he had goaded both of them into hitting him.

By the time Saul left them the foundation was laid.

A week later Lee showed up.

It seemed that there was a conspiracy going on.

By the time winter came around they had four walls and a roof.

They were forced back down into the city while the worst of winter passed.

When the weather finally cleared up enough for them to head up into the mountains, this time accompanied by The Chief and Gaeta who had volunteered to set up solar power and wire the house for electricity.

They couldn't get to it straight away, the snow and harsh winter had damaged some sections, which needed to be repaired before work could be continued, but the two men were more than happy to help out.

After Tyrol and Gaeta left, Laura and Kara were left alone for a time. It didn't bother them.

Work continued, they had considered keeping the design simple but then came to the realisation that neither of them really cared how long it took them the finish building, they could do it however they wanted.

In the end the cabin sported one large room in the middle, where they hoped to get a comfortable couch to put in front of the fireplace Kara had insisted they have, Laura was working on a plan to break into Galactica and steal the couch from Bills quarters (Kara just wanted to see if they could get away with it). They had decided on four bedrooms, one for each of them and the other two just in case they got visitors.

When Bill showed up just before summer officially started, they had most of it finished, and a nice vegetable garden to go with it.

They had come back up the mountain with a large variety of seedlings to plant and once the ground thawed had started to plant them, becoming less dependent on foraging.

"We have a good school system set up" the three of them were sitting by the fire on Bills second night with them "but we've been relying on the apprentice system set up with compulsory military service since settling here. In another few years we'll be able to have a real University and won't have to rely on apprenticeships to pass on skills and knowledge. Tom was wondering if you'd like to have a look at the plans so far and make any recommendations."

Laura smiled, they had known it wouldn't be long until something like this occurred and to be honest she was didn't mind it that much.

"I'd be happy to."

Bill stayed for a month. The day he left he told them that he was planning to retire at the end of the summer.

They nodded and told him his bedroom would be ready whenever he wanted it.

Bill's retirement coincided with the completion of the cabin, SG1 attended and after the official ceremony the three of them plus Tigh and SG1 started the long trek up the mountain, along with house warming gifts from each of the different SG1 members.

The complete works of Homer and Shakespeare from Daniel, fishing supplies from Jack, several different types of Wine and Spirits from Sam and a small portable DVD player along with several of his favourite Earth movies from Teal'c, Kara was intrigued by his description of Star Wars.

When SG1 left them a week later, and it was just Laura, Kara and Bill. They settled into a routine, with a third permanent member of the cabin and Saul confiding in them that he was thinking of retiring within the year they realised that they would need more room and so with Bills help started building a second floor.

Winter rolled around and this time there was no need for them to leave their cabin by the lake.

Requests were constantly coming for Bill and Laura's expertise, they were more than happy to help, as long as they could do it from the comfort of the cabin.

Life continued.

Finis.

**End AN:** Once again a giant thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed.


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